VJSH    LITERATURE 


3THER   ESSAYS 


KARPELI 


JJ'WISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIFT  OF 

MRS.  MARY  WOLFSOHN 

IN   MEMORY  OF 

HENRY  WOLFSOHN 


*   I 


JEWISH    LITERATURE 


AND 


OTHER  ESSAYS 


GUST  A  V   KARPELES 


PHILADELPHIA. 

THE  JEWISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 
1895 


Copyright  1895,  by 
THE  JEWISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 


Press  of 

The  Friedenwald  Co. 
Baltimore 


P5//3 


PREFACE 

The  following  essays  were  delivered  during  the 
last  ten  years,  in  the  form  of  addresses,  before  the 
largest  associations  in  the  great  cities  of  Germany. 
Each  one  is  a  dear  and  precious  possession  to  me. 
As  I  once  more  pass  them  in  review,  reminiscences 
fill  my  mind  of  solemn  occasions  and  impressive 
scenes,  of  excellent  men  and  charming  women.  I 
feel  as  though  I  were  sending  the  best  beloved  child- 
ren of  my  fancy  out  into  the  world,  and  sadness 
seizes  me  when  I  realize  that  they  no  longer 
belong  to  me  alone — that  they  have  become  the 
property  of  strangers.  The  living  word  falling  upon 
the  ear  of  the  listener  is  one  thing;  quite  another 
the  word  staring  from  the  cold,  printed  page.  Will 
my  thoughts  be  accorded  the  same  friendly  welcome 
that  greeted  them  when  first  they  were  uttered? 

I  venture  to  hope  that  they  may  be  kindly  re- 
ceived; for  these  addresses  were  born  of  devoted 
love  to  Judaism.  The  consciousness  that  Israel  is 
charged  with  a  great  historical  mission,  not  yet  ac- 
complished, ushered  them  into  existence.  Truth 
and  sincerity  stood  sponsor  to  every  word.  Is  it 


6  PREFACE 

presumptuous,  then,  to  hope  that  they  may  find 
favor  in  the  Xew  World?  Brethren  of  my  faith  live 
there  as  here ;  our  ancient  watchword,  "  Sh'ma 
Yisrael/'  resounds  in  their  synagogues  as  in  ours; 
the  old  blood-stained  flag,  with  its  sublime  inscrip- 
tion, "The  Lord  is  my  banner!"  floats  over  them; 
and  Jewish  hearts  in  America  are  loyal  like  ours,  and 
sustained  by  steadfast  faith  in  the  Messianic  time 
when  our  hopes  and  ideals,  our  aims  and  dreams, 
will  be  realized.  There  is  but  one  Judaism  the  world 
over,  by  the  Jordan  and  the  Tagus  as  by  the  Vistula 
and  the  Mississippi.  God  bless  and  protect  it,  and 
lead  it  to  the  goal  of  its  glorious  future ! 

To  all  Jewish  hearts  beyond  the  ocean,  in   free 
America,  fraternal  greetings! 

GUSTAV  KARPELES 

BERLIN,   Pesach  - 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  GLANCE  AT  JEWISH  LITERATURE 9 

THE  TALMUD 52 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION     ....  71 

WOMEN  IN  JEWISH  LITERATURE 106 

MOSES  MAIMONIDES 145 

JEWISH  TROUBADOURS  AND  MINNESINGERS 169 

HUMOR  AND  LOVE  IN  JEWISH  POETRY 191 

THE  JEWISH  STAGE      229  * 

THE  JEW'S  QUEST  IN  AFRICA 249 

A  JEWISH  KING  IN  POLAND 272 

JEWISH  SOCIETY  IN  THE  TIME  OF  MENDELSSOHN    .    .  293 

LEOPOLD  ZUNZ 318  ' 

HEINRICH  HEINE  AND  JUDAISM 340 

THE  Music  OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE 369 


A  GLANCE  AT  JEWISH  LITERATURE 

In  a  well-known  passage  of  the  Romanzeroy  rebuk- 
ing Jewish  women  for  their  ignorance  of  the  mag- 
nificent golden  age  of  their  nation's  poetry,  Heine 
used  unmeasured  terms  of  condemnation.  He  was 
too  severe,  for  the  sources  from  which  he  drew  his 
own  information  were  of  a  purely  scientific  charac- 
ter, necessarily  unintelligible  to  the  ordinary  reader. 
The  first  truly  popular  presentation  of  the  whole  of 
Jewish  literature  was  made  only  a  few  years  ago, 
and  could  not  have  existed  in  Heine's  time,  as  the 
most  valuable  treasures  of  that  literature,  a  veritable 
Hebrew  Pompeii,  have  been  unearthed  from  the 
mould  and  rubbish  of  the  libraries  within  this  cen- 
tury. Investigations  of  the  history  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture have  been  possible,  then,  only  during  the  last 
fifty  years. 

But  in  the  course  of  this  half-century,  conscien- 
tious research  has  so  actively  been  prosecuted  that 
we  can  now  gain  at  least  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
whole  course  of  our  literature.  Some  stretches  still 
lie  in  shadow,  and  it  is  not  astonishing  that  eminent 
scholars  continue  to  maintain  that  "  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  organic  history,  a  logical  devel- 
opment, of  the  gigantic  neo-Hebraic  literature"; 
while  such  as  are  acquainted  with  the  results  of  late 


IO  A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

research  at  best  concede  that  Hebrew  literature  has 
been  permitted  to  garner  a  "  tender  aftermath." 
Both  verdicts  are  untrue  and  unfair.  Jewish  litera- 
ture has  developed  organically,  and  in  the  course  of 
its  evolution  it  has  had  its  spring-tide  as  well  as  its 
season  of  decay,  this  again  followed  by  vigorous 
rejuvenescence. 

Such  opinions  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  our  literature,  in  themselves  sufficient  mat- 
ter for  an  interesting  book.  Strange  it  certainly  is 
that  a  people  without  a  home,  without  a  land,  living 
under  repression  and  persecution,  could  produce  so 
great  a  literature ;  stranger  still,  that  it  should  at  first 
have  been  preserved  and  disseminated,  then  forgot- 
ten, or  treated  with  the  disdain  of  prejudice,  and 
finally  roused  from  torpid  slumber  into  robust  life 
by  the  breath  of  the  modern  era.  In  the  neigh- 
borhood of  twenty-two  thousand  works  are  known 
to  us  now.  Fifty  years  ago  bibliographers  were 
ignorant  of  the  existence  of  half  of  these,  and  in  the 
libraries  of  Italy,  England,  and  Germany  an  untold 
number  awaits  resurrection. 

In  fact,  our  literature  has  not  yet  been  given  a 
name  that  recommends  itself  to  universal  accept- 
ance. Some  have  called  it  "  Rabbinical  Literature," 
because  during  the  middle  ages  every  Jew  of  learn- 
ing bore  the  title  Rabbi;  others,  "  Neo-Hebraic"; 
and  a  third  party  considers  it  purely  theological. 
These  names  are  all  inadequate.  Perhaps  the  only 
one  sufficiently  comprehensive  is  "Jewish  Litera- 
ture/' That  embraces,  as  it  should,  the  aggregate 


A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  I  I 

of  writings  produced  by  Jews  from  the  earliest  days 
of  their  history  up  to  the  present  time,  regardless  of 
form,  of  language,  and,  in  the  middle  ages  at  least, 
of  subject-matter. 

With  this  definition  in  mind,  we  are  able  to  sketch 
the  whole  course  of  our  literature,  though  in  the 
frame  of  an  essay  only  in  outline.  We  shall  learn, 
as  Leopold  Zunz,  the  Humboldt  of  Jewish  science, 
well  says,  that  it  is  "  intimately  bound  up  with  the 
culture  of  the  ancient  world,  with  the  origin  and 
development  of  Christianity,  and  with  the  scientific 
endeavors  of  the  middle  ages.  Inasmuch  as  it  shares 
the  intellectual  aspirations  of  the  past  and  the  pre- 
sent, their  conflicts  and  their  reverses,  it  is  supple- 
mentary to  general  literature.  Its  peculiar  features, 
themselves  falling  under  universal  laws,  are  in  turn 
helpful  in  the  interpretation  of  general  characteris- 
tics. If  the  aggregate  results  of  mankind's  intellec- 
tual activity  can  be  likened  unto  a  sea,  Jewish  lit- 
erature is  one  of  the  tributaries  that  feed  it.  Like 
other  literatures  and  like  literature  in  general,  it  re- 
veals to  the  student  what  noble  ideals  the  soul  of 
man  has  cherished,  and  striven  to  realize,  and  dis- 
closes the  varied  achievements  of  man's  intellectual 
powers.  If  we  of  to-day  are  the  witnesses  and  the 
offspring  of  an  eternal,  creative  principle,  then,  in 
turn,  the  present  is  but  the  beginning  of  a  future, 
that  is,  the  translation  of  knowledge  into  life.  Spir- 
itual ideals  consciously  held  by  any  portion  of  man- 
kind lend  freedom  to  thought,  grace  to  feeling,  and 
by  sailing  up  this  one  stream  we  may  reach  the 


12  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

fountain-head  whence  have  emanated  all  spiritual 
forces,  and  about  which,  as  a  fixed  pole,  all  spiritual 
currents  eddy."1 

The  cornerstone  of  this  Jewish  literature  is  the 
Bible,  or  what  we  call  Old  Testament  literature — 
the  oldest  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  important 
of  Jewish  writings.  It  extends  over  the  period  end- 
ing with  the  second  century  before  the  common  era; 
is  written,  for  the  most  part,  in  Hebrew,  and  is  die 
clearest  and  the  most  faithful  reflection  of  the  origi- 
nal characteristics  of  the  Jewish  people.  This  bibli- 
cal literature  has  engaged  the  closest  attention  of  all 
nations  and  every  age.  Until  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, biblical  science  was  purely  dogmatic,  and  only 
since  Herder  pointed  the  way  have  its  aesthetic  ele- 
ments been  dwelt  upon  along  with,  often  in  defiance 
of,  dogmatic  considerations.  Up  to  this  time,  Ernest 
Meier  and  Theodor  Noldeke  have  been  the  only 
ones  to  treat  of  the  Old  Testament  with  reference  to 
its  place  in  the  history  of  literature. 

Despite  the  dogmatic  air  clinging  to  the  critical 
introductions  to  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament, 
their  authors  have  not  shrunk  from  treating  the 
book  sacred  to  two  religions  with  childish  arbitra- 
riness. Since  the  days  of  Spinoza's  essay  at  ration- 
alistic explanation,  Bible  criticism  has  been  the  wrest- 
ling-ground of  the  most  extravagant  exegesis,  of 
bold  hypotheses,  and  hazardous  conjectures.  No 
Latin  or  Greek  classic  has  been  so  ruthlessly  at- 
tacked and  dissected;  no  mediaeval  poetry  so  arbi- 

1  Zunz,  Gesammeltc  Schriften,  I.,  42. 


A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE  1 3 

trarily  interpreted.  As  a  natural  consequence,  the 
aesthetic  elements  were  more  and  more  pushed  into 
the  background.  Only  recently  have  we  begun  to 
ridicule  this  craze  for  hypotheses,  and  returned  to 
more  sober  methods  of  inquiry.  Bible  criticism 
reached  the  climax  of  absurdity,  and  the  scorn  was 
just  which  greeted  one  of  the  most  important  works 
of  the  critical  school,  Hitzig's  "  Explanation  of  the 
Psalms."'  A  reviewer  said :  "  We  may  entertain  the 
fond  hope  that,  in  a  second  edition  of  this  clever 
writer's  commentary,  he  will  be  in  the  enviable  posi- 
tion to  tell  us  the  day  and  the  hour  when  each  psalm 
was  composed." 

The  reaction  began  a  few  years  ago  with  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  inadequacy  of  Astruc's  document 
hypothesis,  until  then  the  creed  of  all  Bible  critics. 
Astruc,  a  celebrated  French  physician,  in  1753  ad- 
vanced the  theory  that  the  Pentateuch — the  five 
books  of  Moses — consists  of  two  parallel  documents, 
called  respectively  Yahvistic  and  Elohistic,  from  the 
name  applied  to  God  in  each.  On  this  basis,  Ger- 
man science  after  him  raised  a  superstructure.  No 
date  was  deemed  too  late  to  be  assigned  to  the  com- 
position of  the  Pentateuch.  If  the  historian  Flavius 
Josephus  had  not  existed,  and  if  Jesus  had  not 
spoken  of  "the  Law"  and  "the  prophets,"  and  of 
the  things  "  which  were  written  in  the  Law  of  Moses, 
and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms,"  critics 
would  have  been  disposed  to  transfer  the  redaction 
of  the  Bible  to  some  period  of  the  Christian  era.  So 
wide  is  the  divergence  of  opinions  on  the  subject  that 


14  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

two  learned  critics,  Ewald  and  Hitzig,  differ  in  the 
date  assigned  to  a  certain  biblical  passage  by  no  less 
than  a  thousand  years! 

Bible  archaeology,  Bible  exegesis,  and  discus- 
sions of  grammatical  niceties,  were  confounded  with 
the  history  of  biblical  literature,  and  naturally  it  was 
the  latter  that  suffered  by  the  lack  of  differentiation. 
Orthodoxy  assumed  a  purely  divine  origin  for  the 
Bible,  while  sceptics  treated  the  holy  book  with 
greater  levity  than  they  would  dare  display  in  criti- 
cising a  modern  novel.  The  one  party  raised  a  hue 
and  cry  when  Moses  was  spoken  of  as  the  first  au- 
thor ;  the  other  discovered  "  obscene,  rude,  even 
cannibalistic  traits "*  in  the  sublime  narratives  of 
the  Bible.  It  should  be  the  task  of  coming  genera- 
tions, successors  by  one  remove  of  credulous  Bible 
lovers,  and  immediate  heirs  of  thorough-going  ra- 
tionalists, to  reconcile  and  fuse  in  a  higher  concep- 
tion of  the  Bible  the  two  divergent  theories  of  its 
purely  divine  and  its  purely  human  origin.  Unfor- 
tunately, it  must  be  admitted  that  Ernest  Meier  is 
right,  when  he  says,  in  his  "  History  of  the  National 
Poetry  of  the  Hebrews,"  that  this  task  wholly  be- 
longs to  the  future;  at  present  it  is  an  unsolved 
problem. 

The  aesthetic  is  the  only  proper  point  of  view  for  a 
full  recognition  of  the  value  of  biblical  literature. 
It  certainly  does  not  rob  the  sacred  Scriptures,  the 
perennial  source  of  spiritual  comfort,  of  their  exalted 
character  and  divine  worth  to  assume  that  legend, 

1  G.  Scherr,  Allgtmcinc  Geschichle  der  Litteratur,  I.,  p.  62. 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  15 

myth,  and  history  have  combined  to  produce  the 
perfect  harmony  which  is  their  imperishable  distinc- 
tion. The  peasant  dwelling  on  inaccessible  moun- 
tain-heights, next  to  the  record  of  Abraham's  shep- 
herd life,  inscribes  the  main  events  of  his  own  career, 
the  anniversary  dates  sacred  to  his  family.  The 
young  count  among  their  first  impressions  that  of 
"the  brown  folio,"  and  more  vividly  than  all  else 
remember 

"The  maidens  fair  and  true, 

The  sages  and  the  heroes  bold, 
Whose  tale  by  seers  inspired 
In  our  Book  of  books  is  told. 

The  simple  life  and  faith 

Of  patriarchs  of  ancient  day 
Like  angels  hover  near, 

And  guard,  and  lead  them  on  the  way."1 

Above  all,  a  whole  nation  has  for  centuries  been 
living  with,  and  only  by  virtue  of,  this  book.  Surely 
this  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  undying  value 
of  the  great  work,  in  which  the  simplest  shepherd 
tales  and  the  naivest  legends,  profound  moral  saws 
and  magnificent  images,  the  ideals  of  a  Messianic 
future  and  the  purest,  the  most  humane  conception 
of  life,  alternate  with  sublime  descriptions  of  nature 
and  the  sweet  strains  of  love-poems,  with  national 
songs  breathing  hope,  or  trembling  with  anguish, 
and  with  the  dull  tones  of  despairing  pessimism  and 
the  divinely  inspired  hymns  of  an  exalted  theodicy — 

1  F.  Freiligrath,  Die  Bilderbibel, 


16  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

all  blending  to  form  what  the  reverential  love  of 
men  has  named  the  Book  of  books. 

It  was  natural  that  a  book  of  this  kind  should 
become  the  basis  of  a  great  literature.  Whatever 
was  produced  in  later  times  had  to  submit  to  be 
judged  by  its  exalted  standard.  It  became  the  rule 
of  conduct,  the  prophetic  mirror  reflecting  the  future 
work  of  a  nation  whose  fate  was  inextricably  bound 
up  with  its  own.  It  is  not  known  how  and  when  the 
biblical  scriptures  were  welded  into  one  book,  a 
holy  canon,  but  it  is  probably  correct  to  assume  that 
it  was  done  by  the  Soferim,  the  Scribes,  between 
200  and  150  B.  C.  E.  At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that 
the  three  divisions  of  the  Bible — the  Pentateuch, 
the  Prophets,  and  the  miscellaneous  writings — were 
contained  in  the  Greek  version,  the  Septuagint,  so 
called  from  the  seventy  or  seventy-two  Alexandrians 
supposed  to  have  done  the  work  of  translation  under 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus. 

The  Greek  translation  of  the  Bible  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  second  period  of  Jewish  literature, 
the  Judaeo-Hellenic.  Hebrew  ceased  to  be  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people;  it  was  thenceforth  used  only 
by  scholars  and  in  divine  worship.  Jewish  for  the 
first  time  met  Greek  intellect.  Shem  and  Japheth 
embraced  fraternally.  "But  even  while  the  teach- 
ings of  Hellas  were  pushing  their  way  into  subju- 
gated Palestine,  seducing  Jewish  philosophy  to 
apostasy,  and  seeking,  by  main  force,  to  introduce 
paganism,  the  Greek  philosophers  themselves  stood 
awed  by  the  majesty  and  power  of  the  Jewish  pro- 


A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE  I/ 

phets.  Swords  and  words  entered  the  lists  as 
champions  of  Judaism.  The  vernacular  Aramaean, 
having  suffered  the  Greek  to  put  its  impress  upon 
many  of  its  substantives,  refused  to  yield  to  the 
influence  of  the  Greek  verb,  and,  in  the  end,  He- 
brew truth,  in  the  guise  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
undermined  the  proud  structure  of  the  heathen." 
This  is  a  most  excellent  characterization  of  that  lit- 
erary period,  which  lasted  about  three  centuries, 
ending  between  100  and  150  C.  E.  Its  influence 
upon  Jewish  literature  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
been  enduring.  To  it  belong  all  the  apocryphal 
writings  which,  originally  composed  in  the  Greek 
language,  were  for  that  reason  not  incorporated  into 
the  Holy  Canon.  The  centre  of  intellectual  life  was 
no  longer  in  Palestine,  but  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
where  three  hundred  thousand  Jews  were  then  liv- 
ing, and  thus  this  literature  came  to  be  called  Judseo- 
Alexandrian.  It  includes  among  its  writers  the  last 
of  the  Neoplatonists,  particularly  Philo,  the  origi- 
nator of  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  Bible 
and  of  a  Jewish  philosophy  of  religion;  Aristeas, 
and  pseudo-Phokylides.  There  were  also  Jewish 
litterateurs :  the  dramatist  Ezekielos ;  Jason ;  Philo 
the  Elder;  Aristobulus,  the  popularizer  of  the  Aris- 
totelian philosophy;  Eupolemos,  the  historian;  and 
probably  the  Jewish  Sybil,  who  had  to  have  re- 
course to  the  oracular  manner  of  the  pagans  to  pro- 
claim the  truths  of  Judaism,  and  to  Greek  figures  of 
speech  for  her  apocalyptic  visions,  which  foretold, 
in  biblical  phrase  and  with  prophetic  ardor,  the  fu- 
ture of  Israel  and  of  the  nations  in  contact  with  it. 


1 8  A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

Meanwhile  the  word  of  the  Bible  was  steadily 
gaining  importance  in  Palestine.  To  search  into 
and  expound  the  sacred  text  had  become  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  congregation  of  Jacob,  of  those  that  had 
not  lent  ear  to  the  siren  notes  of  Hellenism.  Mid- 
rash,  as  the  investigations  of  the  commentators  were 
called,  by  and  by  divided  into  two  streams — Ha- 
lacha,  which  establishes  and  systematizes  the  statutes 
of  the  Law,  and  Haggada,  which  uses  the  sacred 
texts  for  homiletic,  historical,  ethical,  and  pedagogic 
discussions.  The  latter  is  the  poetic,  the  former,  the 
legislative,  element  in  the  Talmudic  writings,  whose 
composition,  extending  over  a  thousand  years,  con- 
stitutes the  third,  the  most  momentous,  period  of 
Jewish  literature.  Of  course,  none  of  these  periods 
can  be  so  sharply  defined  as  a  rapid  survey  might 
lead  one  to  suppose.  For  instance,  on  the  threshold 
of  this  third  epoch  stands  the  figure  of  Flavius  Jo- 
sephus,  the  famous  Jewish  historian,  who,  at  once 
an  enthusiastic  Jew  and  a  friend  of  the  Romans, 
writes  the  story  of  his  nation  in  the  Greek  language 
— a  character  as  peculiar  as  his  age,  which,  listening 
to  the  mocking  laughter  of  a  Lucian,  saw  Olympus 
overthrown  and  its  gods  dethroned,  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem  pass  away  in  flame  and  smoke,  and  the 
new  doctrine  of  the  son  of  the  carpenter  at  Nazareth 
begin  its  victorious  course. 

By  the  side  of  this  Janus-faced  historian,  the  he- 
roes of  the  Talmud  stand  enveloped  in  glory.  We 
meet  with  men  like  Hillel  and  Shammaii,  Jochanan 
ben  Zakkai,  Gamaliel,  Joshua  ben  Chananya,  the 


A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE  IQ 

famous  Akiba,  and  later  on  Yehuda  the  Prince, 
friend  of  the  imperial  philosopher  Marcus  Aurelius, 
and  compiler  of  the  Mishna,  the  authoritative  code 
of  laws  superseding  all  other  collections.  Then 
there  are  the  fabulist  Me'ir;  Simon  ben  Yocha'i, 
falsely  accused  of  the  authorship  of  the  mystical 
Kabbala;  Chiya;  Rab;  Samuel,  equally  famous  as  a 
physician  and  a  rabbi;  Jochanan,  the  supposed  com- 
piler of  the  Jerusalem  Talmud ;  and  Ashi  and  Abina, 
the  former  probably-  the  arranger  of  the  Babylonian 
Talmud.  This  latter  Talmud,  the  one  invested  with 
authority  among  Jews,  by  reason  of  its  varying 
fortunes,  is  the  most  marvellous  literary  monument 
extant.  Never  has  book  been  so  hated  and  so  per- 
secuted, so  misjudged  and  so  despised,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  prized  and  so  honored,  and,  above  all,  so 
imperfectly  understood,  as  this  very  Talmud. 

For  the  Jews  and  their  literature  it  has  had  untold 
significance.  That  the  Talmud  has  been  the  con- 
servator of  Judaism  is  an  irrefutable  statement.  It 
is  true  that  the  study  of  the  Talmud  unduly  ab- 
sorbed the  great  intellectual  force  of  its  adherents, 
and  brought  about  a  somewhat  one-sided  mental 
development  in  the  Jews;  but  it  also  is  true,  as  a 
writer  says,1  that  "  whenever  in  troublous  times 
scientific  inquiry  was  laid  low;  whenever,  for  any 
reason,  the  Jew  was  excluded  from  participation  in 
public  life,  the  study  of  the  Talmud  maintained  the 
elasticity  and  the  vigor  of  the  Jewish  mind,  and 

1  D.  Cassel,  Lehrbuch  der  jiidischen  Geschichte  und  Literatur, 
p.  198. 


2O  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

rescued  the  Jew  from  sterile  mysticism  and  spiritual 
apathy.  The  Talmud,  as  a  rule,  has  been  inimical 
to  mysticism,  and  the  most  brilliant  Talmudists,  in 
propitious  days,  have  achieved  distinguished  success 
in  secular  science.  The  Jew  survived  ages  of  bitter- 
ness, all  the  while  clinging  loyally  to  his  faith  in  the 
midst  of  hostility,  and  the  first  ray  of  light  that  pene- 
trated the  walls  of  the  Ghetto  found  him  ready  to 
take  part  in  the  intellectual  work  of  his  time.  This 
admirable  elasticity  of  mind  he  owes,  first  and  fore- 
most, to  the  study  of  the  Talmud." 

From  this  much  abused  Talmud,  as  from  its  con- 
temporary the  Midrash  in  the  restricted  sense, 
sprouted  forth  the  blossoms  of  the  Haggada — that 
Haggada 

"  Where  the  beauteous,  ancient  sagas, 
Angel  legends  fraught  with  meaning, 
Martyrs'  silent  sacrifices, 
Festal  songs  and  wisdom's  sayings, 

Trope  and  allegoric  fancies- 
All,  hiowe'er  by  faith's  triumphant 
Glow  pervaded — where  they  gleaming, 
Glist'ning,  well  in  strength  exhaustless. 

And  the  boyish  heart  responsive 
Drinks  the  wild,  fantastic  sweetness, 
Greets  the  woful,  wondrous  anguish, 
Yields  to  grewsome  charm  of  myst'ry, 

Hid  in  blessed  worlds  of  fable. 
Overawed  it  hearkens  solemn 
To  that  sacred  revelation 
Mortal  man  hath  poetry  called."1 

1  Heine,  Romanzero,  Jehuda  ben  Halcvy. 


A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  21 

A  story  from  the  Midrash  charmingly  character- 
izes the  relation  between  Halacha  and  Haggada. 
Two  rabbis,  Chiya  bar  Abba,  a  Halachist,  and  Ab- 
bahu,  a  Haggadist,  happened  to  be  lecturing  in  the 
same  town.  Abbahu,  the  Haggadist,  was  always 
listened  to  by  great  crowds,  while  Chiya,  with  his 
Halacha,  stood  practically  deserted.  The  Hagga- 
dist comforted  the  disappointed  teacher  with  a  par- 
able. "  Let  us  suppose  two  merchants,"  he  said,  "  to 
come  to  town,  and  offer  wares  for  sale.  The  one 
has  pearls  and  precious  gems  to  display,  the  other, 
cheap  finery,  gilt  chains,  rings,  and  gaudy  ribbons. 
About  whose  booth,  think  you,  does  the  crowd 
press? — Formerly,  when  the  struggle  for  existence 
was  not  fierce  and  inevitable,  men  had  leisure  and 
desire  for  the  profound  teachings  of  the  Law;  now 
they  need  the  cheering  words  of  consolation  and 
hope." 

For  more  than  a  thousand  years  this  nameless 
spirit  of  national  poesy  was  abroad,  and  produced 
manifold  works,  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  were 
gathered  together  into  comprehensive  collections, 
variously  named  Midrash  Rabba,  Pesikta,  Tan- 
chuma,  etc.  Their  compilation  was  begun  in  about 
700  C.  E.,  that  is,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Talmud, 
in  the  transition  period  from  the  third  epoch  of  Jew- 
ish literature  to  the  fourth,  the  golden  age,  which 
lasted  from  the  ninth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  and, 
according  to  the  law  of  human  products,  shows  a 
season  of  growth,  blossom,  and  decay. 

The  scene  of  action  during  this  period  was  west- 


22  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

ern  Asia,  northern  Africa,  sometimes  Italy  and 
France,  but  chiefly  Spain,  where  Arabic  culture,  des- 
tined to  influence  Jewish  thought  to  an  incalculable 
degree,  was  at  that  time  at  its  zenith.  "A  second 
time  the  Jews  were  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  a  for- 
eign civilization,  and  two  hundred  years  after  Mo- 
hammed, Jews  in  Kairwan  and  Bagdad  were  speak- 
ing the  same  language,  Arabic.  A  language  once 
again  became  the  mediatrix  between  Jewish  and 
general  literature,  and  the  best  minds  of  the  two 
races,  by  means  of  the  language,  reciprocally  influ- 
enced each  other.  Jews,  as  they  once  had  written 
Greek  for  their  brethren,  now  wrote  Arabic;  and,  as 
in  Hellenistic  times,  the  civilization  of  the  dominant 
race,  both  in  its  original  features  and  in  its  adapta- 
tions from  foreign  sources,  was  reflected  in  that  of 
the  Jews."  It  would  be  interesting  to  analyze  this 
important  process  of  assimilation,  but  we  can 
concern  ourselves  only  with  the  works  of  the  Jewish 
intellect.  Again  we  meet,  at  the  threshold  of  the 
period,  a  characteristic  figure,  the  thinker  Sa'adia, 
ranking  high  as  author  and  religious  philosopher, 
known  also  as  a  grammarian  and  a  poet.  He  is  fol- 
lowed by  Sherira,  to  whom  we  owe  the  beginnings 
of  a  history  of  Talmudic  literature,  and  his  son  Hai 
Gaon,  a  strictly  orthodox  teacher  of  the  Law.  In 
their  wake  come  troops  of  physicians,  theologians, 
lexicographers,  Talmudists,  and  grammarians.  Great 
is  the  circle  of  our  national  literature:  it  embraces 
theology,  philosophy,  exegesis,  grammar,  poetry, 
and  jurisprudence,  yea,  even  astronomy  and  chro- 


A    GLANCE   AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE  23 

nology,  mathematics  and  medicine.  But  these 
widely  varying  subjects  constitute  only  one  class, 
inasmuch  as  they  all  are  infused  with  the  spirit  of 
Judaism,  and  subordinate  themselves  to  its  demands. 
A  mention  of  the  prominent  actors  would  turn  this 
whole  essay  into  a  dry  list  of  names.  Therefore  it 
is  better  for  us  merely  to  sketch  the  period  in  out- 
line, dwelling  only  on  its  greatest  poets  and  phil- 
osophers, the  moulders  of  its  character. 

The  opinion  is  current  that  the  Semitic  race  lacks 
the  philosophic  faculty.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  Jews  were  the  first  to  carry  Greek  philoso- 
phy to  Europe,  teaching  and  developing  it  there 
before  its  dissemination  by  celebrated  Arabs.  In 
their  zeal  to  harmonize  philosophy  with  their  re- 
ligion, and  in  the  lesser  endeavor  to  defend  tradi- 
tional Judaism  against  the  polemic  attacks  of  a  new 
sect,  the  Karaites,  they  invested  the  Aristotelian 
system  with  peculiar  features,  making  it,  as  it  were, 
their  national  philosophy.  At  all  events,  it  must  be 
universally  accepted  that  the  Jews  share  with  the 
Arabs  the  merit  "  of  having  cherished  the  study  of 
philosophy  during  centuries  of  barbarism,  and  of 
having  for  a  long  time  exerted  a  civilizing  influence 
upon  Europe." 

The  meagre  achievements  of  the  Jews  in  the  de- 
partments of  history  and  history  of  literature  do  not 
justify  the  conclusion  that  they  are  wanting  in  his- 
toric perception.  The  lack  of  writings  on  these  sub- 
jects is  traceable  to  the  sufferings  and  persecutions 
that  have  marked  their  pathway.  Before  their 


24  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

chroniclers  had  time  to  record  past  afflictions,  new 
sorrows  and  troubles  broke  in  upon  them.  In  the 
middle  ages,  the  history  of  Jewish  literature  is  the 
entire  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  its  course  out- 
lined by  blood  and  watered  by  rivers  of  tears,  at 
whose  source  the  genius  of  Jewish  poetry  sits  la- 
menting. "  The  Orient  dwells  an  exile  in  the  Occi- 
dent," Franz  Delitzsch,  the  first  alien  to  give  loving 
study  to  this  literature,  poetically  says,  "  and  its  tears 
of  longing  for  home  are  the  fountain-head  of  Jewish 
poetry."1 

That  poetry  reached  its  perfection  in  the  works  of 
the  celebrated  trio,  Solomon  Gabirol,  Yehuda  Ha- 
levi,  and  Moses  ben-  Ezra,  Their  dazzling  triumphs 
had  been  heralded  by  the  more  modest  achievements 
of  Abitur,  writing  Hebrew,  and  Adia  and  the  poetess 
Xemona  (Kasmune)  using  Arabic,  to  sing  the  praise 
of  God  and  lament  the  woes  of  Israel. 

The  predominant,  but  not  exclusive,  characteristic 
of  Jewish  poetry  is  its  religious  strain.  Great 
thinkers,  men  equipped "  with  philosophic  training, 
and  at  the  same  time  endowed  with  poetic  gifts, 
have  contributed  to  the  huge  volume  of  synagogue 
poetry,  whose  subjects  are  praise  of  the  Lord  and 
regret  for  Zion.  The  sorrow  for  our  lost  fatherland 
has  never  taken  on  more  glowing  colors,  never  been 
expressed  in  fuller  tones  than  in  this  poetry.  As 
ancient  Hebrew  poetry  flowed  in  the  two  streams  of 
prophecy  and  psalmody,  so  the  Jewish  poetry  of  the 
middle  ages  was  divided  into  Pint  and  Sclicha. 

1  F.  Delitzsch,  Zur  Geschichte  der  judischen  Poesie,  p.  165. 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  2 5 

Songs  of  hope  and  despair,  cries  of  revenge,  ex- 
hortations to  peace  among  men,  elegies  on  every 
single  persecution,  and  laments  for  Zion,  follow  each 
other  in  kaleidoscopic  succession.  Unfortunately, 
there  never  was  lack  of  historic  matter  for  this 
poetry  to  elaborate.  To  furnish  that  was  the  well- 
accomplished  task  of  rulers  and  priests  in  the  middle 
ages,  alike  "in  the  realm  of  the  Islamic  king  of 
kings  and  in  that  of  the  apostolic  servant  of  ser- 
vants." So  fate  made  this  poetry  classical  and  emi- 
nently national.  Those  characteristics  which,  in 
general  literature,  earn  for  a  work  the  description 
"  Homeric,"  in  Jewish  literature  make  a  liturgical 
poem  "  Kaliric,"  so  called  from  the  poet  Eliezer 
Kalir,  the  subject  of  many  mythical  tales,  and  the 
first  of  a  long  line  of  poets,  Spanish,  French,  and 
German,  extending  to  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
century.  The  literary  history  of  this  epoch  has  been 
written  by  Leopold  Zunz  with  warmth  of  feeling 
and  stupendous  learning.  He  closes  his  work  with 
the  hope  that  mankind,  at  some  future  day,  will 
adopt  Israel's  religious  poetry  as  its  own,  transform- 
ing the  elegiac  Selicha  into  a  joyous  psalm  of  uni- 
versal peace  and  good-will. 

Side  by  side  with  religious  flourishes  secular  poet- 
ry, clothing  itself  in  rhyme  and  metre,  adopting 
every  current  form  of  poesy,  and  treating  of  every 
appropriate  subject.  Its  first  votary  was  Solomon 
Gabirol,  that 

"Human  nightingale  that  warbled 
Forth  her  songs  of  tender  love, 


26  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

In  the  darkness  of  the  sombre, 
Gothic  mediaeval  night. 

She,  that  nightingale,  sang  only, 
Sobbing  forth  her  adoration, 
To  her  Lord,  her  God,  in  heaven, 
"Whom  her  songs  of  praise  extolled."1 

Solomon  Gabirol  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
first  poet  thrilled  by  Weltsclnnerz.  u  He  produced 
hymns  and  songs,  penitential  prayers,  psalms,  and 
threnodies,  filled  with  hope  and  longing  for  a  blessed 
future.  They  are  marked  throughout  by  austere 
earnestness,  brushing  away,  in  its  rigor,  the  color 
and  bloom  of  life;  but  side  by  side  with  it,  surging 
forth  from  the  deepest  recesses  of  a  human  soul,  is 
humble  adoration  of  God." 

Gabirol  was  a  distinguished  philosopher  besides. 
In  1150,  his  chief  work,  "The  Fount  of  Life,"  was 
translated  into  Latin  by  Archdeacon  Dominions 
Gundisalvi,  with  the  help  of  Johannes  Avendeath, 
an  apostate  Jew,  the  author's  name  being  corrupted 
into  Avencebrol,  later  becoming  Avicebron.  The 
work  was  made  a  text-book  of  scholastic  philosophy, 
but  neither  Scotists  nor  Thomists,  neither  adherents 
nor  detractors,  suspected  that  a  heretical  Jew  was 
slumbering  under  the  name  Avicebron.  It  re- 
mained for  an  inquirer  of  our  own  day,  Solomon 
Munk,  to  reveal  the  face  of  Gabirol  under  the  mask 
of  a  garbled  name.  Amazed,  we  behold  that  the 
pessimistic  philosopher  of  to-day  can  as  little  as  the 

1  Heine,  /.  c. 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  2/ 

schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages  shake  himself  free 
from  the  despised  Jew.  Schopenhauer  may  object 
as  he  will,  it  is  certain  that  Gabirol  was  his  predeces- 
sor by  more  than  eight  hundred  years! 

Charisi,  whom  we  shall  presently  meet,  has  ex- 
pressed the  verdict  on  his  poetry  which  still  holds 
good:  "  Solomon  Gabirol  pleases  to  call  himself  the 
small — yet  before  him  all  the  great  must  dwindle  and 
fall. — Who  can  like  him.  with  mighty  speech  appall? 
— Compared  with  him  the  poets  of  his  time  are  with- 
out power — he,  the  small,  alone  is  a  tower. — The 
highest  round  of  poetry's  ladder  has  he  won. — Wis- 
dom fondled  him,  eloquence  hath  called  him  son — 
and  clothing  him  with  purple,  said :  '  Lo ! — my  first- 
born son,  go  forth,  to  conquest  go!' — His  predeces- 
sors' songs  are  naught  with  his  compared — nor  have 
his  many  followers  tetter  fared. — The  later  singers 
by  him  were  taught — the  heirs  they  are  of  his  poetic 
thought — But  still  he's  king,  to  him  all  praise  be- 
longs— for  Solomon's  is  the  Song  of  Songs." 

By  Gabirol's  side  stands  Yehuda  Halevi,  probably 
the  only  Jewish  poet  known  to  the  reader  of  general 
literature,  to  whom  his  name,  life,  and  .fate  have  be- 
come familiar  through  Heinrich  Heine's  Roman- 
zero.  His  magnificent  descriptions  of  nature  "  re- 
flect southern  skies,  verdant  meadows,  deep  blue 
rivers,  and  the  stormy  sea,"  and  his  erotic  lyrics  are 
chaste  and  tender.  He  sounds  the  praise  of  wine, 
youth,  and  happiness,  and  extols  the  charms  of  his 
lady-love,  but  above  and  beyond  all  he  devotes  his 
song  to  Zion  and  his  people.  The  pearl  of  his 
poems 


28  A    GLANCF   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

"  Is  the  famous  lamentation 
Sung  In  all  the  tents  of  Jacob, 
Scattered  wide  upon  the  earth     .     .     . 

Yea,  it  is  the  song  of  Zion, 
"Which  Yehuda  ben  Halevy, 
Dying  on  the  holy  ruins, 
Sang  of  loved  Jerusalem."  ' 

"In  the  whole  compass  of  religious  poetry,  Mil- 
ton's and  Klopstock's  not  excepted,  nothing  can  be 
found  to  surpass  the  elegy  of  Zion,"  says  a  modern 
writer,  a  non-Jew.2  This  soul-stirring  "  Lay  of 
Zion,"  better  than  any  number  of  critical  disserta- 
tions, will  give  the  reader  a  clear  insight  into  the 
character  and  spirit  of  Jewish  poetry  in  general : 

O  Zion  !  of  thine  exiles'  peace  take  thought, 
The  remnant  of  thy  flock,  who  thine  have  sought  ! 
From  west,  from  east,  from  north  and  south  resounds, 
Afar  and  now  anear,  from  all  thy  bounds, 

And  no  surcease, 

"  With  thee  be  peace  !  " 

In  longing's  fetters  chained  I  greet  thee,  too, 
My  tears  fast  welling  forth  like  Hermon's  dew — 
O  bliss  could  they  but  drop  on  holy  hills  ! 
A  croaking  bird  I  turn,  when  through  me  thrills 
Thy  desolate  state  ;  but  when  I  dream  anon, 
The  Lord  brings  back  thy  ev'ry  captive  son — 

A  harp  straightway 

To  sing  thy  lay. 

«  Heine,  /.  c. 

*  M.  J.  Schleiden,  Die  Bedcutung  der  Juden  fiir  die  Erhal- 
tung  der  Wissenschaften  im  Mittclalter,  p.  37. 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  2 

In  heart  I  dwell  where  once  thy  purest  son 

At  Bethel  and  Peniel,  triumphs  won  ; 

God's  awesome  presence  there  was  close  to  thee, 

Whose  doors  thy  Maker,  by  divine  decree, 

Opposed  as  mates 

To  heaven's  gates. 

Nor  sun,  nor  moon,  nor  stars  had  need  to  be  ; 
God's  countenance  alone  illumined  thee 
On  whose  elect  He  poured  his  spirit  out. 
In  thee  would  I  my  soul  pour  forth  devout ! 
Thou  wert  the  kingdom's  seat,  of  God  the  throne, 
And  now  there  dwells  a  slave  race,  not  thine  own, 

In  royal  state, 

Where  reigned  thy  great. 

O  would  that  I  could  roam  o'er  ev'ry  place 
Where  God  to  missioned  prophets  showed  His  grace  ! 
'And  who  will  give  me  wings  ?     An  off'ring  meet, 
I'd  haste  to  lay  upon  thy  shattered  seat, 

Thy  counterpart — 

My  bruised  heart. 

Upon  thy  precious  ground  I'd  fall  prostrate, 

Thy  stones  caress,  the  dust  within  thy  gate, 

And  happiness  it  were  in  awe  to  stand 

At  Hebron's  graves,  the  treasures  of  thy  land, 

And  greet  thy  woods,  thy  vine-clad  slopes,  thy  vales, 

Greet  Abarim  and  Hor,  whose  light  ne'er  pales, 

A  radiant  crown, 

Thy  priests'  renown. 

Thy  air  is  balm  for  souls  ;  like  myrrh  thy  sand  ; 
With  honey  run  the  rivers  of  thy  land. 
Though  bare  my  feet,  my  heart's  delight  I'd  count 
To  thread  my  way  all  o'er  thy  desert  mount, 

Where  once  rose  tall 

Thy  holy  hall, 


30  A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

Where  stood  thy  treasure-ark,  in  recess  dim, 
Close-curtained,  guarded  o'er  by  cherubim. 
My  Naz'rite's  crown  would  I  pluck  off,  and  cast 
It  gladly  forth.     With  curses  would  I  blast 
The  impious  time  thy  people,  diadem-crowned, 
Thy  Nazirites,  did  pass,  by  en'mies  bound 

With  hatred's  bands, 

In  unclean  lands. 


By  dogs  thy  lusty  lions  are  brutal  torn 

And  dragged ;    thy  strong,  young  eaglets,   heav'nward 

borne, 

By  foul-mouthed  ravens  snatched,  and  all  undone. 
Can  food  still  tempt  my  taste  ?     Can  light  of  sun 

Seem  fair  to  shine 

To  eyes  like  mine  ? 


Soft,  soft !  Leave  off  a  while,  O  cup  of  pain  ! 
My  loins  are  weighted  down,  my  heart  and  brain, 
With  bitterness  from  thee.     Whene'er  I  think 
Of  Oholah,1  proud  northern  queen,  I  drink 
Thy  wrath,  and  when  my  Oholivah  forlorn 
Comes  back  to  mind — 'tis  then  I  quaff  thy  scorn, 

Then,  draught  of  pain, 

Thy  lees  I  drain. 


O  Zion  !     Crown  of  grace  !     Thy  comeliness 
Hath  ever  favor  won  and  fond  caress. 
Thy  faithful  lovers'  lives  are  bound  in  thine  ; 
They  joy  in  thy  security,  but  pine 

And  weep  in  gloom 

O'er  thy  sad  doom. 


1  Ezek.  xxiii.  4.     [Tr.] 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  3! 

From  out  the  prisoner's  cell  they  sigh  for  thee, 
And  each  in  prayer,  wherever  he  may  be, 
Towards  thy  demolished  portals  turns.     Exiled, 
Dispersed  from  mount  to  hill,  thy  flock  defiled 
Hath  not  forgot  thy  sheltering  fold.     They  grasp 
Thy  garment's  hem,  and  trustful,  eager,  clasp, 

With  outstretched  arms, 

Thy  branching  palms. 

Shiiiar,  Pathros — can  they  in  majesty 
With  thee  compare  ?     Or  their  idolatry 
With  thy  Urim  and  thy  Thummim  august  ? 
Who  can  surpass  thy  priests,  thy  saintly  just, 

Thy  prophets  bold, 

And  bards  of  old  ? 

The  heathen  kingdoms  change  and  wholly  cease — 

Thy  might  alone  stands  firm  without  decrease, 

Thy  Nazirites  from  age  to  age  abide^ 

Thy  God  in  thee  desireth  to  reside. 

Then  happy  he  who  maketh  choice  of  thee 

To  dwell  within  thy  courts,  and  waits  to  see, 

And  toils  to  make, 

Thy  light  awake. 

On  him  shall  as  the  morning  break  thy  light, 
The  bliss  of  thy  elect  shall  glad  his  sight, 
In  thy  felicities  shall  he  rejoice, 
In  triumph  sweet  exult,  with  jubilant  voice, 

O'er  thee,  adored, 

To  youth  restored. 

We  have  loitered  long  with  Yehuda  Halevi,  and 
still  not  long  enough,  for  we  have  not  yet  spoken  of 
his  claims  to  the  title  philosopher,  won  for  him  by 
his  book  Al-Chazari.  But  now  we  must  hurry  on 


32  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

/to  Moses  ben  Ezra,  the  last  and  most  worldly  of  the 
three  great  poets.  He  devotes  his  genius  to  his 
patrons,  to  wine,  his  faithless  mistress,  and  to  "  bac- 
chanalian feasts  under  leafy  canopies,  with  merry 
minstrelsy  of  birds."  He  laments  over  separation 
from  friends  and  kin,  weeps  over  the  shortness  of 
life  and  the  rapid  approach  of  hoary  age — all  in  pol- 
ished language,  sometimes,  however,  lacking  eu- 
phony. Even  when  he  strikes  his  lyre  in  praise  and 
honor  of  his  people  Israel,  he  fails  to  rise  to  the 
lofty  heights  attained  by  his  mates  in  song. 

With  Yehuda  Charisi,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  period  of  the  epigones  sets 
in  for  Spanish-Jewish  literature.  In  Charisi's  Tach- 
kemoni,  an  imitation  of  the  poetry  of  the  Arab 
Hariri,  jest  and  serious  criticism,  joy  and  grief,  the 
sublime  and  the  trivial,  follow  each  other  like  tints 
in  a  parti-colored  skein.  His  distinction  is  the  ease 
with  which  he  plays  upon  the  Hebrew  language,  not 
the  most  pliable  of  instruments.  In  general,  Jewish 
poets  and  philosophers  have  manipulated  that  lan- 
guage with  surprising  dexterity.  Songs,  hymns, 
elegies,  penitential  prayers,  exhortations,  and  religi- 
ous meditations,  generation  after  generation,  were 
couched  in  the  idiom  of  the  psalmist,  yet  the  struc- 
ture of  the  language  underwent  no  change.  "The 
development  of  the  neo-Hebraic  idiom  from  the  an- 
cient Hebrew,"  a  distinguished  modern  ethnogra- 
pher justly  says,  "  confirms,  by  linguistic  evidence, 
the  plasticity,  the  logical  acumen,  the  comprehen- 
sive and  at  the  same  time  versatile  intellectuality  of 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  33 

the  Jewish  race.  By  the  ingenious  compounding  of 
words,  by  investing  old  expressions  with  new  mean- 
ings, and  adapting  the  material  offered  by  alien  or 
related  languages  to  its  own  purposes,  it  has  in- 
creased and  enriched  a  comparatively  meagre  treas- 
ury of  words."1 

Side  by  side  with  this  cosmopolitanism,  illus- 
trated in  the  Haggada,  whose  pages  prove  that  no- 
thing human  is  strange  to  the  Jewish  race,  it  reveals, 
in  its  literary  development,  as  notably  in  the  Ha- 
lacha,  a  sharply  defined  subjectivity.  Jellinek  says: 
"  Not  losing  itself  in  the  contemplation  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  life,  not  devoting  itself  to  any  subject 
unless  it  be  with  an  ulterior  purpose,  but  seeing  all 
things  in  their  relation  to  itself,  and  subordinating 
them  to  its  own  boldly  asserted  ego,  the  Jewish  race 
is  not  inclined  to  apply  its  powers  to  the  solution  of 
intricate  philosophic  problems,  or  to  abstruse  meta- 
physical speculations.  It  is,  therefore,  not  a  philo- 
sophic race,  and  its  participation  in  the  philosophic 
work  of  the  world  dates  only  from  its  contact  with 
the  Greeks."  The  same  author,  on  the  other  hand, 
emphasizes  the  liberality,  the  broad  sympathies,  of 
the  Jewish  race,  in  his  statement  that  the  Jewish 
mind,  at  its  first  meeting  with  Arabic  philosophy, 
absorbed  it  as  a  leaven  into  its  intellectual  life.  The 
product  of  the  assimilation  was — as  early  as  the 
twelfth  century,  mark  you — a  philosophic  concep- 
tion of  life,  whose  broad  liberality  culminates  in  the 
sentiment  expressed  by  two  most  eminent  thinkers: 

1  Ad.  Jellinek,  Der  judische  Stamiti,  p.  195. 


34  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

Christianity  and  Islam  are  the  precursors  of  a  world- 
religion,  the  preliminary  conditions  for  the  great 
religious  system  satisfying  all  men.  Yehuda  Halevi 
and  Moses  Maimonides  were  the  philosophers  bold 
enough  to  utter  this  thought  of  far-reaching  sig- 
nificance. 

The  second  efflorescence  of  Jewish  poetry  brings 
forth  exotic  romances,  satires,  verbose  hymns,  and 
humorous  narrative  poems.  Such  productions  cer- 
tainly do  not  justify  the  application  of  the  epithet 
"  theological "  to  Jewish  literature.  Solomon  ben 
Sakbel  composes  a  satiric  romance  in  the  Makamat1 
form,  describing  the  varied  adventures  of  Asher  ben 
Yehuda,  another  Don  Quixote;  Berachya  Hanak- 
dan  puts  into  Hebrew  the  fables  of  Aesop  and  Lok- 
man,  furnishing  La  Fontaine  with  some  of  his  ma- 
terial; Abraham  ibn  Sahl  receives  from  the  Arabs, 
certainly  not  noted  for  liberality,  ten  goldpieces  for 
each  of  his  love-songs;  Santob  de  Carrion  is  a  be- 
loved Spanish  bard,  bold  enough  to  tell  unpleasant 
truths  unto  a  king;  Joseph  ibn  Sabara  writes  a  hu- 
morous romance;  Yehuda  Sabbatai,  epic  satires, 
"The  War  of  Wealth  and  Wisdom,"  and  "A  Gift 
from  a  Misogynist,"  and  unnamed  authors,  "  Truth's 
Campaign,"  and  "  Praise  of  Women." 

1 "  Makama  (plural,  Makamat),  the  Arabic  word  for  a  place 
where  people  congregate  to  discuss  public  affairs,  came  to  be 
used  as  the  name  of  a  form  of  poetry  midway  between  the  epic 
and  the  drama."  (Karpeles,  Geschichtc  der  jiidischen  Liicra- 
tur,  vol.  II.,  p.  693.)  The  most  famous  Arabic  poet  of  Makamat 
was  Hariri  of  Bassora,  and  the  most  famous  Jewish,  Yehuda 
Charisi.  See  above,  p.  32,  and  p.  211  [Tr.] 


A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  35 

A  satirist  of  more  than  ordinary  gifts  was  the 
Italian  Kalonymos,  whose  "Touchstone,"  like  Ibn 
Chasdai's  Makamat,  "  The  Prince  and  the  Dervish," 
has  been  translated  into  German.  Contempora- 
neous with  them  was  Siisskind  von  Trimberg,  the 
Suabian  minnesinger,  and  Samson  Pnie,  of  Stras- 
burg,  who  helped  the  German  poets  continue  Par- 
zival,  while  later  on,  in  Italy,  Moses  Rieti  composed 
"  The  Paradise "  in  Hebrew  terza-rima. 

In  the  decadence  of  Jewish  literature,  the  most 
prominent  figure  is  Immanuel  ben  Solomon,  or 
Manoello,  as  the  Italians  call  him.  Critics  think 
him  the  precursor  of  Boccaccio,  and  history  knows 
him  as  the  friend  of  Dante,  whose  Divina  Corn- 
media  he  travestied  in  Hebrew.  The  author  of  the 
first  Hebrew  sonnet  and  of  the  first  Hebrew  novel, 
he  was  a  talented  writer,  but  as  frivolous  as  talented. 

This  is  the  development  of  Jewish  poetry  during 
its  great  period.  In  other  departments  of  literature, 
in  philosophy,  in  theology,  in  ethics,  in  Bible  ex- 
egesis, the  race  is  equally  prolific  in  minds  of  the 
first  order.  Glancing  back  for  a  moment,  our  eye 
is  arrested  by  Moses  Maimonides,  the  great  syste- 
matizer  of  the  Jewish  Law,  and  the  connecting  link 
between  scholasticism  and  the  Greek-Arabic  devel- 
opment of  the  Aristotelian  system.  Before  his  time 
Becha'i  ibn  Pakuda  and  Joseph  ibn  Zadik  had  en- 
tered upon  theosophic  speculations  with  the  object 
of  harmonizing  Arabic  and  Greek  philosophy,  and  in 
the  age  immediately  preceding  that  of  Maimonides, 
Abraham  ibn  Daud,  a  writer  of  surprisingly  liberal 


36  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

views,  had  undertaken,  in  "  The  Highest  Faith,"  the 
task  of  reconciling  faith  with  philosophy.  At  the 
same  time  rationalistic  Bible  exegesis  was  begun  by 
Abraham  ibn  Ezra,  an  acute  but  reckless  contro- 
versialist. Orthodox  interpretations  of  the  Bible 
had,  before  him,  been  taught  in  France  by  Rashi 
(Solomon  Yitschaki)  and  Samuel  ben  Meir,  and 
continued  by  German  rabbis,  who,  at  the  same  time, 
were  preachers  of  morality — a  noteworthy  phenome- 
non in  a  persecuted  tribe.  "  How  pure  and  strong 
its  ethical  principles  were  is  shown  by  its  religious 
poetry  as  well  as  by  its  practical  Law.  What  per- 
vades the  poetry  as  a  high  ideal,  in  the  application 
of  the  Law  becomes  demonstrable  reality.  The 
wrapt  enthusiasm  in  the  hymns  of  Samuel  the  Pious 
and  other  poets  is  embodied,  lives,  in  the  rulings  of 
Yehuda  Hakohen,  Solomon  Yitschaki,  and  Jacob 
ben  Meir ;  in  the  legal  opinions  of  Isaac  ben  Abra- 
ham, Eliezer  ha-Levi,  Isaac  ben  Moses,  Meir  ben 
Baruch,  and  their  successors,  and  in  the  codices  of 
Eliezer  of  Metz  and  Moses  de  Coucy.  A  German 
professor1  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  after  glancing 
through  some  few  Jewish  writings,  exclaimed,  in  a 
tone  of  condescending  approval :  i  Christians  of  that 
time  could  scarcely  have  been  expected  to  enjoin 
such  high  moral  principles  as  this  Jew  wrote  down 
and  bequeathed  to  his  brethren  in  faith!'" 

Jewish  literature  in  this  and  the  next  period  con- 
sists largely  of  theological  discussions  and  of  com- 
mentaries on  the  Talmud  produced  by  the  hundred. 

1  Hirt,  Bibliothck,  V.,  p.  43. 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  37 

It  would  be  idle  to  name  even  the  most  prominent 
authors;  their  works  belong  to  the  history  of  theo- 
logic  science,  and  rarely  had  a  determining  influence 
upon  the  development  of  genuine  literature. 

We  must  also  pass  over  in  silence  the  numerous 
Jewish  physicians  and  medical  writers;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  they,  too,  belong  to  Jewish 
literature.  The  most  marvellous  characteristic  of 
this  literature  is  that  in  it  the  Jewish  race  has  reg- 
istered each  step  of  its  development.  "  All  things 
learned,  gathered,  obtained,  on  its  journeyings 
hither  and  thither — Greek  philosophy  and  Arabic, 
as  well  as  Latin  scholasticism — all  deposited  them- 
selves in  layers  about  the  Bible,  so  stamping  later 
Jewish  literature  with  an  individuality  that  gave  it 
an  unique  place  among  the  literatures  of  the  world." 

The  travellers,  however,  -must  be  mentioned  by 
name.  Their  itineraries  were  wholly  dedicated  to 
the  interests  of  their  co-religionists.  The  first  of  the 
line  is  Eldad,  the  narrator  of  a  sort  of  Hebrew 
Odyssey.  Benjamin  of  Tudela  and  Petachya  of 
Ratisbon  are  deserving  of  more  confidence  as  vera- 
cious chroniclers,  and  their  descriptions,  together 
with  Charisi's,  complete  the  Jewish  library  of  travels 
of  those  early  days,  unless,  with  Steinschneider,  we 
consider,  as  we  truly  may,  the  majority  of  Jewish  au- 
thors under  this  head.  For  Jewish  writers  a  hard, 
necessitous  lot  has  ever  been  a  storm  wind,  tossing 
them  hither  and  thither,  and  blowing  the  seeds  of 
knowledge  over  all  lands.  Withal  learning  proved 
an  enveloping,  protecting  cloak  to  these  mendicant 


38  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

and  pilgrim  authors.  The  dispersion  of  the  Jews, 
their  international  commerce,  and  the  desire  to  main- 
tain their  academies,  stimulated  a  love  for  travel, 
made  frequent  journey  ings  a  necessity,  indeed.  In 
this  way  only  can  we  account  for  the  extraordinarily 
rapid  spread  of  Jewish  literature  in  the  middle  ages. 
The  student  of  those  times  often  chances  across  a 
rabbi,  who  this  day  teaches,  lectures,  writes  in  Can- 
dia,  to-morrow  in  Rome,  next  year  in  Prague  or 
Cracow,  and  so  Jewish  literature  is  the  4'  wandering 
Jew"  among  the  world's  literatures. 

The  fourth  period,  the  Augustan  age  of  our  litera- 
ture, closes  with  a  jarring  discord — the  expulsion 
of  the  Jews  from  Spain,  their  second  home,  in  which 
they  had  seen  ministers,  princes,  professors,  and 
poets  rise  from  their  ranks.  The  scene  of  literary 
activity  changes:  France,  Italy,  but  chiefly  the  Sla- 
vonic East,  are  pushed  into  the  foreground.  It  is 
not  a  salutary  change ;  it  ushers  in  three  centuries  of 
decay  and  stagnation  in  literary  endeavor.  The 
sum  of  the  efforts  is  indicated  by  the  name  of  the 
period,  the  Rabbinical,  for  its  chief  work  was  the 
development  and  fixation  of  Rabbinism. 

Decadence  did  not  set  in  immediately.  Cer- 
tain beneficent  forces,  either  continuing  in  action 
from  the  former  period,  or  arising  out  of  the  new 
concatenation  of  circumstances,  were  in  operation: 
Jewish  exiles  from  Spain  carried  their  culture  to  the 
asylums  hospitably  offered  them  in  the  Orient  and 
a  few  of  the  European  countries,  notably  Holland; 
the  art  of  printing  was  spreading,  the  first  presses  in 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  39 

Italy  bringing  out  Jewish  works;  and  the  sun  of 
humanism  and  of  the  Reformation  was  rising  and 
shedding  solitary  rays  of  its  effulgence  on  the  Jew- 
ish minds  then  at  work. 

Among  the  noteworthy  authors  standing  between 
the  two  periods  and  belonging  to  both,  the  most 
prominent  is  Nachmanides,  a  pious  and  learned 
Bible  scholar.  With  logical  force  and  critical  can- 
dor he  entered  into  the  great  conflict  between 
science  and  faith,  then  dividing  the  Jewish  world 
into  two  camps,  with  Maimonides'  works  as  their 
shibboleth.  The  Aristotelian  philosophy  was  no 
longer  satisfying.  Minds  and  hearts  were  yearning 
for  a  new  revelation,  and  in  default  thereof  steeping 
themselves  in  mystical  speculations.  A  voluminous 
theosophic  literature  sprang  up.  The  Zohar,  the 
Bible  of  mysticism,  was  circulated,  its  authorship 
being  fastened  upon  a  rabbi  of  olden  days.  It  is 
altogether  probable  that  the  real  author  was  living 
at  the  time;  many  think  that  it  was  Moses  de  Leon. 
The  liberal  party  counted  in  its  ranks  the  two  dis- 
tinguished families  of  Tibbon  and  Kimchi,  the  for- 
mer famed  as  successful  translators,  the  latter  as 
grammarians.  Their  best  known  representatives 
were  Judah  ibn  Tibbon  and  David  Kimchi.  Curi- 
ously enough,  the  will  of  the  former  contains,  in 
unmistakable  terms,  the  opinion  that  "  Property  is 
theft,"  anticipating  Proudhon,  who,  had  he  known 
it,  would  have  seen  in  its  early  enunciation  addi- 
tional testimony  to  its  truth.  The  liberal  faction 
was  also  supported  by  Jacob  ben  Abba-Mari,  the 


4<D  A   GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

friend  of  Frederick  II.  and  Michael  Scotus.  Abba- 
Mari  lived  at  the  German  emperors  court  at  Naples, 
and  quoted  him  in  his  commentary  upon  the  Bible 
as  an  exegete.  Besides  there  were  among  the 
Maimunists,  or  rationalists,  Levi  ben  Abraham,  an 
extraordinarily  liberal  man;  Shemtob  Palquera,  one 
of  the  most  learned  Jews  of  his  century,  and  Yedaya 
Penini,  a  philosopher  and  pessimistic  poet,  whose 
"  Contemplation  of  the  World "  was  translated  by 
Mendelssohn,  and  praised  by  Lessing  and  Goethe. 
Despite  this  array  of  talent,  the  opponents  were 
stronger,  the  most  representative  partisan  being  the 
Talmudist  Solomon  ben  Aderet. 

At  the  same  time  disputations  about  the  Talmud, 
ending  with  its  public  burning  at  Paris,  were  carried 
on  with  the  Christian  clergy.  The  other  literary 
current  of  the  age  is  designated  by  the  word  Kab- 
bala,  which  held  many  of  the  finest  and  noblest 
minds  captive  to  its  witchery.  The  Kabbala  is  un- 
questionably a  continuation  of  earlier  theosophic 
inquiries.  Its  chief  doctrines  have  been  stated  by  a 
thorough  student  of  our  literature:  All  that  exists 
originates  in  God,  the  source  of  light  eternal.  He 
Himself  can  be  known  only  through  His  manifesta- 
tions. He  is  without  beginning,  and  veiled  in  mys- 
tery, or,  He  is  nothing,  because  the  whole  of  creation 
has  developed  from  nothing.  This  nothing  is  one, 
indivisible,  and  limitless — En-Sof.  God  fills  space, 
He  is  space  itself.  In  order  to  manifest  Himself,  in 
order  to  create,  that  is,  disclose  Himself  by  means  of 
emanations,  He  contracts,  thus  producing  vacant 


A   GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  4! 

space.  The  En-Sof  first  manifested  itself  in  the  pro- 
totype of  the  whole  of  creation,  in  the  macrocosm 
called  the  "  son  of  God,"  the  first  man,  as  he  appears 
upon  the  chariot  of  Ezekiel.  From  this  primitive 
man  the  whole  created  world  emanates  in  four 
stages :  Azila,  Bcria,  Yezira,  Asiya.  The  Azila  ema- 
nation represents  the  active  qualities  of  primitive 
man.  They  are  forces  or  intelligences  flowing  from 
him,  at  once  his  essential  qualities  and  the  faculties 
by  which  he  acts.  There  are  ten  of  these  forces, 
forming  the  ten  sacred  Sefirotk,  a  word  which  first 
meaning  number  came  to  stand  for  sphere.  The 
first  three  Sefiroth  are  intelligences,  the  seven  others, 
attributes.  They  are  supposed  to  follow  each  other 
in  this  order:  I.  Kether  (crown);  2.  Chochma  (wis- 
dom); 3.  Beena  (understanding);  4.  Chesed  (grace), 
or  Ghedulla  (greatness);  5.  Ghevoora  (dignity) ;  6. 
Tifereth  (splendor);  7.  Nezach  (victory);  8.  Hod 
(majesty);  9.  Yesod  (principle);  10.  Malchuth  (king- 
dom). From  this  first  world  of  the  Azila  emanate 
the  three  other  worlds,  Asiya  being  the  lowest  stage. 
Man  has  part  in  these  three  worlds;  a  microcosm, 
he  realizes  in  his  actual  being  what  is  foreshadowed 
by  the  ideal,  primitive  man.  He  holds  to  the  Asiya 
by  his  vital  part  (Nefesfi),  to  the  Yezira  by  his  intel- 
lect (Ruach],  to  the  Beria  by  his  soul  (Neshamd). 
The  last  is  his  immortal  part,  a  spark  of  divinity. 

Speculations  like  these,  followed  to  their  logical 
issue,  are  bound  to  lead  the  investigator  out  of 
Judaism  into  Trinitarianism  or  Pantheism.  Kabbal- 
ists,  of  course  only  in  rare  cases,  realized  the  danger. 


42  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

The  sad  conditions  prevailing  in  the  era  after  the 
expulsion  from  Spain,  a  third  exile,  were  in  all  re- 
spects calculated  to  promote  the  development  of 
mysticism,  and  it  did  flourish,  luxuriantly. 

Some  few  philosophers,  the  last  of  a  long  line, 
still  await  mention:  Levi  ben  Gerson,  Joseph  Kaspi, 
Moses  of  Narbonne  in  southern  France,  long  a  seat 
of  Jewish  learning;  then,  Isaac  ben  Sheshet,  Chasdai 
Crescas,  whose  "  Light  of  God  "  exercised  deep  in- 
fluence upon  Spinoza  and  his  philosophy;  the  Duran 
family,  particularly  Profiat  Duran,  successful  de- 
fender of  Judaism  against  the  attacks  of  apostates 
and  Christians;  and  Joseph  Albo,  who  in  his  princi- 
pal philosophic  work,  Ikkarim,  shows  Judaism  to 
be  based  upon  three  fundamental  doctrines:  the  be- 
lief in  the  existence  of  God,  Revelation,  and  the  be- 
lief in  future  reward  and  punishment.  These  writers 
are  the  last  to  reflect  the  glories  of  the  golden  age. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  next  period  we  again  meet 
a  man  of  extraordinary  ability,  Isaac  Abrabanel,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  and  esteemed  of  Bible  commen- 
tators, in  early  life  minister  to  a  Catholic  king,  later 
on  a  pilgrim  scholar  wandering  about  exiled  with 
his  sons,  one  of  whom,  Yehuda,  has  fame  as  the 
author  of  the  Dialoghi  di  Amore.  In  the  train  of 
exiles  passing  from  Portugal  to  the  Orient  are  Abra- 
ham Zacuto,  an  eminent  historian  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture and  sometime  professor  of  astronomy  at  the 
university  of  Salamanca;  Joseph  ibn  Verga,  the  his- 
torian of  his  nation;  Amatus  Lusitanus,  who  came 
close  upon  the  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  43 

blood;  Israel  Nagara,  the  most  gifted  poet  of  the 
century,  whose  hymns  brought  him  popular  favor; 
later,  Joseph  Karo,  "  the  most  influential  personage 
of  the  sixteenth  century,"  his  claims  upon  recog- 
nition resting  on  the  Shulchan  Antc/i,  an  exhaustive 
codex  of  Jewish  customs  and  laws ;  and  many  others. 
In  Salonica,  the  exiles  soon  formed  a  prosperous 
community,  where  flourished  Jacob  ibn  Chabib,  the 
first  compiler  of  the  Haggadistic  tales  of  the  Tal- 
mud, and  afterwards  David  Conforte,  a  reputable 
historian.  In  Jerusalem,  Obadiah  Bertinoro  was  en- 
gaged on  his  celebrated  Mishna  commentary,  in  the 
midst  of  a  large  circle  of  Kabbalists,  of  whom  Solo- 
mon Alkabez  is  the  best  known  on  account  of  his 
famous  Sabbath  song,  Lecho  Dodi.  Once  again 
Jerusalem  was  the  objective  point  of  many  pilgrims, 
lured  thither  by  the  prevalent  Kabbalistic  and  Messi- 
anic vagaries.  True  literature  gained  little  from 
such  extremists.  The  only  work  produced  by  them 
that  can  be  admitted  to  have  literary  qualities  is 
Isaiah  Hurwitz's  "The  Two  Tables  of  the  Testi- 
mony," even  at  this  day  enjoying  celebrity.  It  is  a 
sort  of  cyclopaedia  of  Jewish  learning,  compiled  and 
expounded  from  a  mystic's  point  of  view. 

The  condition  of  the  Jews  in  Italy  was  favorable, 
and  their  literary  products  derive  grace  from  their 
good  fortune.  The  Renaissance  had  a  benign  effect 
upon  them,  and  the  revival  of  classical  studies  influ- 
enced their  intellectual  work.  Greek  thought  met 
Jewish  a  third  time.  Learning  was  enjoying  its  res- 
urrection, and  whenever  their  wretched  political  and 


44  A    GLANCE    AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

social  condition  was  not  a  hindrance,  the  Jews  joined 
in  the  general  delight.  Their  miser}7,  however,  was 
an  imdiminishing  burden,  yea,  even  in  the  days  in 
which,  according  to  Erasmus,  it  was  joy  to  live.  In 
fact,  it  was  growing  heavier.  All  the  more  note- 
worthy is  it  that  Hebrew  studies  engaged  the  re- 
search of  scholars,  albeit  they  showed  care  for  the 
\vord  of  God,  and  not  for  His  people.  Pico  della 
Alirandola  studies  the  Kabbala;  the  Jewish  gram- 
marian Elias  Levita  is  the  teacher  of  Cardinal 
Egidio  de  Yiterbo,  and  later  of  Paul  Fagius  and 
Sebastian  Miinster,  the  latter  translating  his  teacher's 
works  into  Latin;  popes  and  sultans  prefer  Jews  as 
their  physicians  in  ordinary,  who,  as  a  rule,  are  men 
of  literary  distinction ;  the  Jews  translate  philosophic 
writings  from  Hebrew  and  Arabic  into  Latin;  Elias 
del  Medigo  is  summoned  as  arbiter  in  the  scholastic 
conflict  at  the  University  of  Padua ; — all  boots  noth- 
ing, ruin  is  not  averted.  Reuchlin  may  protest  as  he 
will,  the  Jew  is  exiled,  the  Talmud  burnt. 

In  such  dreary  days  the  Portuguese  Samuel  Usque 
writes  his  work,  Consola$am  as  Tribulafdes  de  Ys- 
rael,  and  Joseph  Cohen,  his  chronicle,  k*  The  Vale  of 
Weeping,"  the  most  important  history  produced 
since  the  day  of  Flavius  Josephus, — additional 
proofs  that  the  race  possesses  native  buoyancy,  and 
undaunted  heroism  in  enduring  suffering.  Women, 
too,  in  increasing  number,  participate  in  the  spiritual 
work  of  their  nation;  among  them,  Deborah  Asca- 
relli  and  Sara  Copia  Sullam,  the  most  distinguished 
of  a  long  array  of  names. 


A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE  45 

The  keen  critic  and  scholar,  Azariah  de  Rossi,  is 
one  of  the  literary  giants  of  his  period.  His  re- 
searches in  the  history  of  Jewish  literature  are  the 
basis  upon  which  subsequent  work  in  this  depart- 
ment rests,  and  many  of  his  conclusions  still  stand 
unassailable.  About  him  are  grouped  Abraham  de 
Portaleone,  an  excellent  archaeologist,  who  estab- 
lished that  Jews  had  been  the  first  to  observe  the 
medicinal  uses  of  gold;  David  de  Pomis,  the  author 
of  a  famous  defense  of  Jewish  physicians;  and  Leo 
de  Modena,  the  rabbi  of  Venice,  "  unstable  as 
water,"  wavering  between  faith  and  unbelief,  and, 
Kabbalist  and  rabbi  though  he  was,  writing  works 
against  the  Kabbala  on  the  one  hand,  and  against 
rabbinical  tradition  on  the  other.  Similar  to  him 
in  character  is  Joseph  del  Medigo,  an  itinerant  au- 
thor, who  sometimes  reviles,  sometimes  extols,  the 
Kabbala. 

There  are  men  of  higher  calibre,  as,  for  instance, 
Isaac  Aboab,  whose  Nomologia  undertakes  to  de- 
fend Jewish  tradition  against  every  sort  of  assailant; 
Samuel  Aboab,  a  great  Bible  scholar;  Azariah  Figo, 
a  famous  preacher;  and,  above  all,  Moses  Chayyim 
Luzzatto,  the  first  Jewish  dramatist,  the  dramas  pre- 
ceding his  having  interest  only  as  attempts.  He, 
too,  is  caught  in  the  meshes  of  the  Kabbala,  and  falls 
a  victim  to  its  powers  of  darkness.  His  dramas  tes- 
tify to  poetic  gifts  and  to  extraordinay  mastery  of 
the  Hebrew  language,  the  faithful  companion  of  the 
Jewish  nation  in  all  its  journeyings.  To  complete 
this  sketch  of  the  Italian  Jews  of  that  period,  it 


46  A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

should  be  added  that  while  in  intellect  and  attain- 
ments they  stand  above  their  brethren  in  faith  of 
other  countries,  in  character  and  purity  of  morals 
they  are  their  inferiors. 

Thereafter  literary  interest  centres  in  Poland, 
where  rabbinical  literature  found  its  most  zealous 
and  most  learned  exponents.  Throughout  the  land 
schools  were  established,  in  which  the  Talmud  was 
taught  by  the  Pilpul,  an  ingenious,  quibbling  me- 
thod of  Talmudic  reasoning  and  discussion,  said  to 
have  originated  with  Jacob  Pollak.  Again  we  have 
a  long  succession  of  distinguished  names.  There 
are  Solomon  Luria,  Moses  Isserles,  Joel  Sirkes, 
David  ben  Levi,  Sabbatai  Kohen,  and  Elias  Wilna. 
Sabbatai  Kohen,  from  whom,  were  pride  of  ancestry 
permissible  in  the  republic  of  letters,  the  present 
writer  would  boast  descent,  was  not  only  a  Tal- 
mudic writer;  he  also  left  historical  and  poetical 
works.  Elias  Wilna,  the  last  in  the  list,  had  a  subtle, 
delicately  poised  mind,  and  deserves  special  mention 
for  his  determined  opposition  to  the  Kabbala  and  its 
offspring  Chassidism,  hostile  and  ruinous  to  Juda- 
ism and  Jewish  learning. 

A  gleam  of  true  pleasure  can  be  obtained  from  the 
history  of  the  Dutch  Jews.  In  Holland  the  Jews 
united  secular  culture  with  religious  devotion,  and 
the  professors  of  other  faiths  met  them  with  toler- 
ance and  friendliness.  Sunshine  falls  upon  the  Jew- 
ish schools,  and  right  into  the  heart  of  a  youth,  who 
straightway  abandons  the  Talmud  folios,  and  goes 
out  into  the  world  to  proclaim  to  wondering  man- 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  47 

kind  the  evangel  of  a  new  philosophy.  The  youth 
is  Baruch  Spinoza! 

There  are  many  left  to  expound  Judaism:  Ma- 
nasseh  ben  Israel,  writing  both  Hebrew  and  Latin 
books  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  emancipation  of  his 
people  and  of  its  literary  pre-eminence;  David  Neto, 
a  student  of  philosophy;  Benjamin  Mussafia,Orobio 
de  Castro,  David  Abenator  Melo,  the  Spanish  trans- 
lator of  the  Psalms,  and  Daniel  de  Barrios,  poet  and 
critic — all  using  their  rapidly  acquired  fluency  in  the 
Dutch  language  to  champion  the  cause  of  their 
people. 

In  Germany,  a  mixture  of  German  and  Hebrew 
had  come  into  use  among  the  Jews  as  the  medium 
of  daily  intercourse.  In  this  peculiar  patois,  called 
Judendeiitsch,  a  large  literature  had  developed.  Be- 
fore Luther's  time,  it  possessed  two  fine  translations 
of  the  Bible,  besides  numerous  writings  of  an  ethical, 
poetical,  and  historical  character,  among  which  par- 
ticular mention  should  be  made  of  those  on  the  Ger- 
man legend-cycles  of  the  middle  ages.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Talmud  receives  its  due  of  time,  effort,  and 
talent.  New  life  comes  only  with  the  era  of  eman- 
cipation and  enlightenment. 

Only  a  few  names  shall  be  mentioned,  the  rest 
would  be  bound  soon  to  escape  the  memory  of  the 
casual  reader:  there  is  an  historian,  David  Gans;  a 
bibliographer,  Sabbata'i  Bassista,  and  the  Talmudists 
Abigedor  Kara,  Jacob  Joshua,  Jacob  Emden,  Jona- 
than Eibeschiitz,  and  Ezekiel  Landau.  It  is  delight 
to  be  able  once  again  to  chronicle  the  interest  taken 


48  A    GLANCE    AT    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

in  long  neglected  Jewish  literature  by  such  Chris- 
tian scholars  as  the  two  Buxtorfs,  Bartolocci,  Wolff, 
Surrenhuys,  and  De  Rossi.  Unfortunately,  the  in- 
terest dies  out  with  them,  and  it  is  significant  that 
to  this  day  most  eminent  theologians,  decidedly  to 
their  own  disadvantage,  "  content  themselves  with 
unreliable  secondary  sources,"  instead  of  drinking 
from  the  fountain  itself. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  sixth  and  last  period,  our 
own,  not  yet  completed,  whose  fruits  will  be  judged 
by  a  future  generation.  It  is  the  period  of  the  reju- 
venescence of  Jewish  literature.  Changes  in  char- 
acter, tenor,  form,  and  language  take  place.  Ger- 
many for  the  first  time  is  in  the  van,  and  Mendels- 
sohn, its  most  attractive  figure,  stands  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  period,  surrounded  by  his  disciples  Wes- 
sely,  Homberg,  Euchel,  Friedlander,  and  others,  in 
conjunction  with  whom  he  gives  Jews  a  new,  pure 
German  Bible  translation.  Poetry  and  philology 
are  zealously  pursued,  and  soon  Jewish  science, 
through  its  votaries  Leopold  Zunz  and  S.  J.  Rappa- 
port,  celebrates  a  brilliant  renascence,  such  as  the 
poet  describes :  "  In  the  distant  East  the  dawn  is 
breaking, — The  olden  times  are  growing  young 
again." 

Die  Gottesdicnstlichen  Vortrage  der  Juden,  by 
Zunz,  published  in  1832,  was  the  pioneer  work  of 
the  new  Jewish  science,  whose  present  development, 
despite  its  wide  range,  has  not  yet  exhausted  the 
suggestions  made  by  the  author.  Other  equally 
important  works  from  the  same  pen  followed,  and 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  49 

then  came  the  researches  of  Rappaport,  Z.  Frankel, 
I.  M.  Jost,  M.  Sachs,  S.  D.  Luzzatto,  S.  Munk,  A. 
Geiger,  L.  Herzfeld,  H.  Graetz,  J.  Furst,  L.  Dukes, 
M.  Steinschneider,  D.  Cassel,  S.  Holdheim,  and  a 
host  of  minor  investigators  and  teachers.  Their  lov- 
ing devotion  roused  Jewish  science  and  literature 
from  their  secular  sleep  to  vigorous,  intellectual  life, 
reacting  beneficently  on  the  spiritual  development 
of  Judaism  itself.  The  moulders  of  the  new  litera- 
ture are  such  men  as  the  celebrated  preachers  Adolf 
Jellinek,  Salomon,  Kley,  Mannheimer;  the  able 
thinkers  Steinheim,  Hirsch,  Krochmal;  the  illus- 
trious scholars  M.  Lazarus,  H.  Steinthal;  and  the 
versatile  journalists  G.  Riesser  and  L.  Philipson. 

Poetry  has  not  been  neglected  in  the  general  re- 
vival. The  first  Jewish  poet  to  write  in  German  was 
M.  E.  Kuh,  whose  tragic  fate  has  been  pathetically 
told  by  Berthold  Auerbach  in  his  Dichter  und  Kauf- 
mann.  The  burden  of  this  modern  Jewish  poetry 
is,  of  course,  the  glorification  of  the  loyalty  and  for- 
titude that  preserved  the  race  during  a  calamitous 
past  Such  poets  as  Steinheim,  Wihl,  L.  A.  Frankl, 
M.  Beer,  K.  Beck,  Th.  Creizenach,  M.  Hartmann, 
S.  H.  Mosenthal,  Henriette  Ottenheimer,  Moritz 
Rappaport,  and  L.  Stein,  sing  the  songs  of  Zion  in 
the  tongue  of  the  German.  And  can  Heine  be  for- 
gotten, he  who  in  his  Romanzero  has  so  melo- 
diously, yet  so  touchingly  given  word  to  the  hoary 
sorrow  of  the  Jew? 

In  an  essay  of  this  scope  no  more  can  be  done 
than  give  the  barest  outline  of  the  modern  move- 


$O  A  GLANCE   AT  JEWISH    LITERATURE 

ment.  A  detailed  description  of  the  work  of  Ger- 
man-Jewish lyrists  belongs  to  the  history  of  German 
literature,  and,  in  fact,  on  its  pages  can  be  found  a 
due  appreciation  of  their  worth  by  unprejudiced 
critics,  who  give  particularly  high  praise  to  the  new 
species  of  tales,  the  Jewish  village,  or  Ghetto,  tales, 
with  which  Jewish  and  German  literatures  have  lat- 
terly been  enriched.  Their  object  is  to  depict  the 
religious  customs  in  vogue  among  Jews  of  past  gen- 
erations, their  home-life,  and  the  conflicts  that  arose 
when  the  old  Judaism  came  into  contact  with  mod- 
ern views  of  life.  The  master  in  the  art  of  telling 
these  Ghetto  tales  is  Leopold  Kompert.  Of  his 
disciples — for  all  coming  after  him  may  be  consid- 
ered such — A.  Bernstein  described  the  Jews  of  Po- 
sen ;  K.  E.  Franzos  and  L.  Herzberg-Frankel,  those 
of  Poland;  E.  Kulke,  the  Moravian  Jews;  M.  Gold- 
schmied,  the  Dutch;  S.  H.  Mosenthal,  the  Hessian, 
and  M.  Lehmann,  the  South  German.  To  Berthold 
Auerbach's  pioneer  work  this  whole  class  of  litera- 
ture owes  its  existence;  and  Heinrich  Heine's  frag- 
ment, Rabbi  von  Bacharach,  a  model  of  its  kind, 
puts  him  into  this  category  of  writers,  too. 

And  so  Judaism  and  Jewish  literature  are  stepping 
into  a  new  arena,  on  which  potent  forces  that  may 
radically  affect  both  are  struggling  with  each  other. 
Is  Jewish  poetry  on  the  point  of  dying  out,  or  is  it 
destined  to  enjoy  a  resurrection?  Who  would  be 
rash  enough  to  prophesy  aught  of  a  race  whose 
entire  past  is  a  riddle,  whose  literature  is  a  question- 
mark?  Of  a  race  which  for  more  than  a  thousand 


A    GLANCE   AT   JEWISH    LITERATURE  $1 

years  has,  like  its  progenitor,  been  wrestling  vic- 
toriously with  gods  and  men? 

To  recapitulate:  We  have  followed  out  the  course 
of  a  literary  development,  beginning  in  grey  an- 
tiquity with  biblical  narratives,  assimilating  Persian 
doctrines,  Greek  wisdom,  and  Roman  law;  later, 
Arabic  poetry  and  philosophy,  and,  finally,  the 
whole  of  European  science  in  all  its  ramifications. 
The  literature  we  have  described  has  contributed  its 
share  to  every  spiritual  result  achieved  by  humanity, 
and  is  a  still  unexplored  treasury  of  poetry  and  phi- 
losophy, of  experience  and  knowledge. 

"All  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea;  yet  the  sea  is 
never  full,"  saith  the  Preacher;  so  all  spiritual  cur- 
rents flow  together  into  the  vast  ocean  of  a  world- 
literature,  never  full,  never  complete,  rejoicing  in 
every  accession,  reaching  the  climax  of  its  might 
and  majesty  on  that  day  when,  according  to  the 
prophet,  "  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea," 


THE  TALMUD 

In  the  whole  range  of  the  world's  literatures  there 
are  few  books  with  so  checkered  a  career,  so  curious 
a  fate,  as  the  Talmud  has  had.  The  name  is  simple 
enough,  it  glides  glibly  from  the  tongue,  yet  how 
difficult  to  explain  its  import  to  the  uninitiated! 
From  the  Dominican  Henricus  Seynensis,  who  took 
"  Talmud  "  to  be  the  name  of  a  rabbi — he  introduces 
a  quotation  with  Ut  narrat  rabbinus  Talmud,  "  As 
Rabbi  Talmud  relates  " — down  to  the  church  his- 
torians and  university  professors  of  our  day,  the 
oddest  misconceptions  on  the  nature  of  the  Talmud 
have  prevailed  even  among  learned  men.  It  is  not 
astonishing,  then,  that  the  general  reader  has  no 
notion  of  what  it  is. 

Only  within  recent  years  the  Talmud  has  been 
made  the  subject  of  scientific  study,  and  now  it  is 
consulted  by  philologists,  cited  by  jurists,  drawn 
upon  by  historians,  the  general  public  is  beginning 
to  be  interested  in  it,  and  of  late  the  old  Talmud  has 
repeatedly  been  summoned  to  appear  in  courts  of 
law  to  give  evidence.  Under  these  circumstances  it 
is  natural  to  ask,  What  is  the  Talmud?  Futile  to 
seek  an  answer  by  comparing  this  gigantic  monu- 
ment of  the  human  intellect  with  any  other  book ;  it 
is  sui  generis.  In  the  form  in  which  it  issued  from 
52 


THE    TALMUD  53 

the  Jewish  academies  of  Babylonia  and  Palestine,  it 
is  a  great  national  work,  a  scientific  document  of 
first  importance,  the  archives  of  ten  centuries,  in 
which  are  preserved  the  thoughts  and  opinions,  the 
views  and  verdicts,  the  errors,  transgressions,  hopes, 
disappointments,  customs,  ideals,  convictions,  and 
sorrows  of  Israel — a  work  produced  by  the  zeal  and 
patience  of  thirty  generations,  laboring  with  a  self- 
denial  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  literature.  A 
work  of  this  character  assuredly  deserves  to  be 
known.  Unfortunately,  the  path  to  its  understand- 
ing is  blocked  by  peculiar  linguistic  and  historical 
difficulties.  Above  all,  explanations  by  compari- 
son must  be  avoided.  It  has  been  likened  to  a  legal 
code,  to  a  journal,  to  the  transactions  of  learned 
bodies;  but  these  comparisons  are  both  inadequate 
and  misleadihg.  To  make  it  approximately  clear 
a  lengthy  explanation  must  be  entered  upon,  for, 
in  truth,  the  Talmud,  like  the  Bible,  is  a  world  in 
miniature,  embracing  every  possible  phase  of  life. 

The  origin  of  the  Talmud  was  simultaneous  with 
Israel's  return  from  the  Babylonian  exile,  during 
which  a  wonderful  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
captive  people.  An  idolatrous,  rebellious  nation 
had  turned  into  a  pious  congregation  of  the  Lord, 
possessed  with  zeal  for  the  study  of  the  Law.  By 
degrees  there  grew  up  out  of  this  study  a  science 
of  wide  scope,  whose  beginnings  are  hidden  in  the 
last  book  of  the  Bible,  in  the  word  Midrash,  trans- 
lated by  "  story "  in  the  Authorized  Version.  Its 
true  meaning  is  indicated  by  that  of  its  root,  darash. 


54  THE    TALMUD 

to  study,  to  expound.  Four  different  methods  of 
explaining  the  sacred  Scriptures  were  current:  the 
first  aimed  to  reach  the  simple  understanding  of 
words  as  they  stood;  the  second  availed  itself  of 
suggestions  offered  by  apparently  superfluous  letters 
and  signs  in  the  text  to  arrive  at  its  meaning;  the 
third  was  "  a  homiletic  application  of  that  which  had 
been  to  that  which  was  and  would  be,  of  prophetical 
and  historical  dicta  to  the  actual  condition  of 
things  " ;  and  the  fourth  devoted  itself  to  theosophic 
mysteries — but  all  led  to  a  common  goal. 

^In  the  course  of  the  centuries  the  development  of 
the  Midrash,  or  study  of  the  Law,  lay  along  the  two 
strongly  marked  lines  of  Halacha,  the  explanation 
and  formulating  of  laws,  and  Haggada,  their  poeti- 
cal illustration  and  ethical  application.  These  are 
the  two  spheres  within  which  the  intellectual  life  of 
Judaism  revolved,  and  these  the  two  elements,  the 
legal  and  the  aesthetic,  making  up  the  Talmud. 

The  two  Midrashic  systems  emphasize  respec- 
tively the  rule  of  law  and  the  sway  of  liberty:  Ha- 
lacha is  law  incarnate;  Haggada,  liberty  regulated 
by  law  and  bearing  the  impress  of  morality.  Ha- 
lacha stands  for  the  rigid  authority  of  the  Law,  for 
the  absolute  importance  of  theory — the  law  and  the- 
ory which  the  Haggada  illustrates  by  public  opinion 
and  the  dicta  of  common-sense  morality.  The  Ha- 
lacha embraces  the  statutes  enjoined  by  oral  tradi- 
tion, which  was  the  unwritten  commentary  of  the 
ages  on  the  written  Law,  along  with  the  discussions 
of  the  academies  of  Palestine  and  Babylonia,  result- 


THE    TALMUD  55 

ing  in  the  final  formulating  of  the  Halachic  ordi- 
nances. The  Haggada,  while  also  starting  from  the 
word  of  the  Bible,  only  plays  with  it,  explaining  it 
by  sagas  and  legends,  by  tales  and  poems,  allegories, 
ethical  reflections,  and  historical  reminiscences.  For 
it,  the  Bible  was  not  only  the  supreme  law,  from 
whose  behests  there  was  no  appeal,  but  also  "  a 
golden  nail  upon  which "  the  Haggada  "  hung  its 
gorgeous  tapestries,"  so  that  the  Bible  word  was  the 
introduction,  refrain,  text,  and  subject  of  the  poeti- 
cal glosses  of  the  Talmud.  It  was  the  province  of 
the  Halacha  to  build,  upon  the  foundation  of  biblical 
law,  a  legal  superstructure  capable  of  resisting  the 
ravages  of  time,  and,  unmindful  of  contemporaneous 
distress  and  hardship,  to  trace  out,  for  future  genera- 
tions, the  extreme  logical  consequences  of  the  Law 
in  its  application.  To  the  Haggada  belonged  the 
high,  ethical  mission  of  consoling,  edifying,  exhort- 
ing, and  teaching  a  nation  suffering  the  pangs,  and 
threatened  with  the  spiritual  stagnation,  of  exile;  of 
proclaiming  that  the  glories  of  the  past  prefigured  a 
future  of  equal  brilliancy,  and  that  the  very  wretch- 
edness of  the  present  was  part  of  the  divine  plan  out- 
lined in  the  Bible.  If  the  simile  is  accurate  that 
likens  the  Halacha  to  the  ramparts  about  Israel's 
sanctuary,  which  every  Jew  was  ready  to  defend  with 
his  last  drop  of  blood,  then  the  Haggada  must  seem 
u  flowery  mazes,  of  exotic  colors  and  bewildering 
fragrance,"  within  the  shelter  of  the  Temple  walls. 

The  complete  work  of  expounding,   developing, 
and  finally  establishing  the  Law  represents  the  labor 


56  THE    TALMUD 

of  many  generations,  the  method  of  procedure  vary- 
ing from  time  to  time.  In  the  long  interval  between 
the  close  of  the  Holy  Canon  and  the  completion  of 
the  Talmud  can  be  distinguished  three  historical 
strata  deposited  by  three  different  classes  of  teachers. 
The  first  set,  the  Scribes — Soferim — flourished  in  the 
period  beginning  with  the  return  from  Babylonian 
captivity  and  ending  with  the  Syrian  persecutions 
(220  B.  C.  E.),  and  their  work  was  the  preservation 
of  the  text  of  the  Holy  Writings  and  the  simple  ex- 
pounding of  biblical  ordinances.  They  were  fol- 
lowed by  the  "  Learners  " — Tanalm — whose  activity 
extended  until  220  C.  E.  Great  historical  events 
occurred  in  that  period:  the  campaigns  of  the  Mac- 
cabean  heroes,  the  birth  of  Jesus,  the  destruction  of 
the  Temple  by  the  Romans,  the  rebellion  under  Bar- 
Kochba,  and  the  final  complete  dispersion  of  the 
Jews.  Amid  all  these  storms  the  Tanaim  did  not 
for  a  moment  relinquish  their  diligent  research  in 
the  Law.  The  Talmud  tells  the  story  of  a  celebrated 
rabbi,  than  which  nothing  can  better  characterize 
the  age  and  its  scholars:  Night  was  falling.  A 
funeral  cortege  was  moving  through  the  streets  of 
old  Jerusalem.  It  was  said  that  disciples  were  bear- 
ing a  well-beloved  teacher  to  the  grave.  Reveren- 
tially the  way  was  cleared,  not  even  the  Roman 
guard  at  the  gate  hindered  the  procession.  Beyond 
the  city  walls  it  halted,  the  bier  was  set  down,  the 
lid  of  the  coffin  opened,  and  out  of  it  arose  the  ven- 
erable form  of  Rabbi  Jochanan  ben  Zakkai,  who,  to 
reach  the  Roman  camp  unmolested,  had  feigned 


THE    TALMUD  57 

death.  He  went  before  Vespasian,  and,  impressed 
by  the  noble  figure  of  the  hoary  rabbi,  the  general 
promised  him  the  fulfilment  of  any  wish  he  might 
express.  What  was  his  petition?  Not  for  his  na- 
tion, not  for  the  preservation  of  the  Holy  City, 
not  even  for  the  Temple.  His  request  was  simple: 
"  Permit  me  to  open  a  school  at  Jabneh."  The 
proud  Roman  smilingly  gave  consent.  He  had  no 
conception  of  the  significance  of  this  prayer  and  of 
the  prophetic  wisdom  of  the  petitioner,  who,  stand- 
ing on  the  ruins  of  his  nation's  independence, 
thought  only  of  rescuing  the  Law.  Rome,  the  em- 
pire of  the  "  iron  legs,"  was  doomed  to  be  crushed, 
nation  after  nation  to  be  swallowed  in  the  vortex  of 
time,  but  Israel  lives  by  the  Law,  the  very  law 
snatched  from  the  smouldering  ruins  of  Jerusalem, 
the  beloved  alike  of  crazy  zealots  and  despairing 
peace  advocates,  and  carried  to  the  tiny  seaport  of 
Jabneh.  There  Jochanan  ben  Zakkai  opened  his 
academy,  the  gathering  place  of  the  dispersed  of  his 
disciples  and  his  people,  and  thence,  gifted  with  a 
prophet' s  keen  vision,  he  proclaimed  Israel's  mission 
to  be,  not  the  offering  of  sacrifices,  but  the  accom- 
plishment of  works  of  peace.1 

The  Tanaim  may  be  considered  the  most  original 
expounders  of  the  science  of  Judaism,  which  they 
fostered  at  their  academies.  In  the  course  of  cen- 
turies their  intellectual  labor  amassed  an  abundant 
store  of  scientific  material,  together  with  so  vast  a 
number  of  injunctions,  prohibitions,  and  laws  that  it 

1  Midrash  Echah,  I.,  5 ;  Mishna,  Rosh  Hashana,  chap.  II, 


58  THE    TALMUD 

became  almost  impossible  to  master  the  subject 
The  task  of  scholars  now  was  to  arrange  the  accu- 
mulation of  material  and  reduce  it  to  a  system. 
Rabbi  after  rabbi  undertook  the  task,  but  only  the 
fourth  attempt  at  codification,  that  made  by  Yehuda 
the  Prince,  was  successful.  His  compilation,  classi- 
fying the  subject-matter  under  six  heads,  subdivided 
into  sixty-three  tractates,  containing  five  hundred 
and  twenty-four  chapters,  was  called  Mishna,  and 
came  to  be  the  authority  appealed  to  on  points  of 
law. 

Having  assumed  fixity  as  a  code,  the  Mishna  in 
turn  became  what  the  Bible  had  been  for  centuries — 
a  text,  the  basis  of  all  legal  development  and  scien- 
tific discussion.  So  it  was  used  by  the  epigones,  the 
Amoratm,  or  Speakers,  the  expounders  of  the  third 
period.  For  generations  commenting  on  the  Mish- 
na was  the  sum-total  of  literary  endeavor.  Tradi- 
tions unheeded  before  sprang  to  light.  New  methods 
asserted  themselves.  To  the  older  generation  of  Hal- 
achists  succeeded  a  set  of  men  headed  by  Akiba  ben 
Joseph,  who,  ignoring  practical  issues,  evolved  laws 
from  the  Bible  text  or  from  traditions  held  to  be 
divine.  A  spiritual,  truly  religious  conception  of 
Judaism  was  supplanted  by  legal  quibbling  and 
subtle  methods  of  interpretation.  Like  the  sophists 
of  Rome  and  Alexandria  at  that  time,  the  most  cele- 
brated teachers  in  the  academies  of  Babylonia  and 
Palestine  for  centuries  gave  themselves  up  to  casuis- 
try. This  is  the  history  of  the  development  of  the 
Talmud,  or  more  correctly  of  the  two  Talmuds,  the 


THE    TALMUD  59 

one,  finished  in  390  C.  E.,  being  the  expression  of 
what  was  taught  at  the  Palestinian  academies;  the 
other,  more  important  one,  completed  in  500  C.  E., 
of  what  was  taught  in  Babylonia. 

The  Babylonian,  the  one  regarded  as  authorita- 
tive, is  about  four  times  as  large  as  the  Jerusalem 
Talmud.  Its  thirty-six  treatises  (Massichtoth],  in  our 
present  edition,  cover  upwards  of  three  thousand 
folio  pages,  bound  in  twelve  huge  volumes.  To 
speak  of  a  completed  Talmud  is  as  incorrect  as  to 
speak  of  a  biblical  canon.  No  religious  body,  no 
solemn  resolution  of  a  synod,  ever  declared  either 
the  Talmud  or  the  Bible  a  completed  whole.  Can- 
onizing of  any  kind  is  distinctly  opposed  to  the 
spirit  of  Judaism.  The  fact  is  that  the  tide  of  tradi- 
tional lore  has  never  ceased  to  flow. 

We  now  have  before  us  a  faint  outline  sketch  of 
the  growth  of  the  Talmud.  To  portray  the  busy 
world  fitting  into  this  frame  is  another  and  more 
difficult  matter.  A  catalogue  of  its  contents  may  be 
made.  It  may  be  said  that  it  is  a  book  containing 
laws  and  discussions,  philosophic,  theologic,  and 
juridic  dicta,  historical  notes  and  national  reminis- 
cences, injunctions  and  prohibitions  controlling  all 
the  positions  and  relations  of  life,  curious,  quaint 
tales,  ideal  maxims  and  proverbs,  uplifting  legends, 
charming  lyrical  outbursts,  and  attractive  enig- 
mas side  by  side  with  misanthropic  utterances,  be- 
wildering medical  prescriptions,  superstitious  prac- 
tices, expressions  of  deep  agony,  peculiar  astrologi- 
cal charms,  and  rambling  digressions  on  law,  zo- 


6O  THE    TALMUD 

ology,  and  botany,  and  when  all  this  has  been  said, 
not  half  its  contents  have  been  told.  It  is  a  luxu- 
riant jungle,  which  must  be  explored  by  him  who 
would  gain  an  adequate  idea  of  its  features  and  pro- 
ducts. 

The  Ghemara,  that  is,  the  whole  body  of  discus- 
sions recorded  in  the  two  Talmuds,  primarily  forms 
a  running  commentary  on  the  text  of  the  Mishna. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  the  arena  for  the  debating  and 
investigating  of  subjects  growing  out  of  the  Mishna, 
or  suggested  by  a  literature  developed  along  with 
the  Talmudjc  literature.  These  discussions,  debates, 
and  investigations  are  the  opinions  and  arguments 
of  the  different  schools,  holding  opposite  views,  de- 
veloped with  rare  acumen  and  scholastic  subtlety, 
and  finally  harmonized  in  the  solution  reached. 
The  one  firm  and  impregnable  rock  supporting  the 
gigantic  structure  of  the  Talmud  is  the  word  of  the 
Bible,  held  sacred  and  inviolable. 

The  best  translations — single  treatises  have  been 
put  into  modern  languages — fail  to  convey  an  ade- 
quate idea  of  the  discussions  and  method  that 
evolved  the  Halacha,  It  is  easier  to  give  an  ap- 
proximately true  presentation  of  the  rabbinical  sys- 
tem of  practical  morality  as  gleaned  from  the  Hag- 
gada.  It  must,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Halacha  and  Haggada  are  not  separate  works ;  they 
are  two  fibres  of  the  same  thread.  "  The  whole  of 
the  Haggadistic  literature — the  hitherto  unappreci- 
ated archives  of  language,  history,  archaeology,  re- 
ligion, poetry,  and  science — with  but  slight  reserva- 


THE   TALMUD  6l 

tions  may  be  called  a  national  literature,  containing 
as  it  does  the  aggregate  of  the  views  and  opinions 
of  thousands  of  thinkers  belonging  to  widely  separ- 
ated generations.  Largely,  of  course,  these  views 
and  opinions  are  peculiar  to  the  individuals  holding 
them  or  to  their  time  " ;  still,  every  Haggadistic  ex- 
pression, in  a  general  way,  illustrates  some  funda- 
mental, national  law,  based  upon  the  national  re- 
ligion and  the  national  history.1  Through  the  Hag- 
gada  we  are  vouchsafed  a  glance  into  a  mysterious 
world,  which  mayhap  has  hitherto  repelled  us  as 
strange  and  grewsome.  Its  poesy  reveals  vistas  of 
gleaming  beauty  and  light,  luxuriant  growth  and 
exuberant  life,  while  familiar  melodies  caress  our 
ears. 

The  Haggada  conveys  its  poetic  message  in  the 
garb  of  allegory,  song,  and  chiefly  epigrammatic  say- 
ing. Form  is  disregarded;  the  spirit  is  all-import- 
ant, and  suffices  to  cover  up  every  fault  of  form. 
The  Talmud,  of  course,  does  not  yield  a  complete 
system  of  ethics,  but  its  practical  philosophy  con- 
sists of  doctrines  that  underlie  a  moral  life.  The 
injustice  of  the  abuse  heaped  upon  it  would  become 
apparent  to  its  harshest  critics  from  a  few  of  its 
maxims  and  rules  of  conduct,  such  as  the  following: 
Be  of  them  that  are  persecuted,  not  of  the  perse- 

1  Cmp.  Wiitische,  Die  Haggada  des  jerusalemischen  Tal- 
mud, and  the  same  author's  great  work,  Die  Haggada  des 
babylonischen  Talmud,  II. ;  also  W.  Bacher,  Die  Agada  der 
7"annaiten,  Die  Agada  der  balylonischen  Amorder,  and  Die 
Agada  der  paldstinensischen  Amoraer,  Vol.  L 


62  THE    TALMUD 

cutors. — Be  the  cursed,  not  he  that  curses. — They 
that  are  persecuted,  and  do  not  persecute,  that  are 
vilified  and  do  not  retort,  that  act  in  love,  and  are 
cheerful  even  in  suffering,  they  are  the  lovers  of 
God. — Bless  God  for  the  good  as  well  as  the  eviL 
When  thou  nearest  of  a  death,  say,  -  Blessed  be  the 
righteous  Judge." — Life  is  like  unto  a  fleeting 
shadow.  Is  it  the  shadow  of  a  tower  or  of  a  bird? 
It  is  the  shadow  of  a  bird  in  its  flight  Away  flies 
the  bird,  and  neither  bird  nor  shadow  remains  be- 
hind.— Repentance  and  good  works  are  the  aim  of 
all  earthly  wisdom. — Even  the  just  will  not  have  so 
high  a  place  in  heaven  as  the  truly  repentant — He 
whose  learning  surpasses  his  good  works  is  like  a 
tree  with  many  branches  and  few  roots,  which  a 
wind-storm  uproots  and  casts  to  the  ground.  But 
he  whose  good  works  surpass  his  learning  is  like  a 
tree  with  few  branches  and  many  roots :  all  the  winds 
of  heaven  cannot  move  it  from  its  place. — There  are 
three  crowns:  the  crown  of  the  Law,  the  crown  of 
the  priesthood,  the  crown  of  kingship.  But  greater 
than  all  is  the  crown  of  a  good  name. — Four  there 
are  that  cannot  enter  Paradise:  the  scoffer,  the  liar, 
the  hypocrite,  and  the  backbiter. — Beat  the  gods, 
and  the  priests  will  tremble. — Contrition  is  better 
than  many  flagellations. — \Yhen  the  pitcher  falls 
upon  the  stone,  woe  unto  the  pitcher:  when  the 
stone  falls  upon  the  pitcher,  woe  unto  the  pitcher; 
whatever  betides,  woe  unto  the  pitcher. — The  place 
does  not  honor  the  man,  the  man  honors  the  place, 
— He  who  humbles  himself  will  be  exalted;  he  who 


*THE  TALMUD  63 

exalts  himself  will  be  humbled. — Whosoever  pur- 
sues greatness,  from  him  will  greatness  flee;  whoso- 
ever flees  from  greatness,  him  will  greatness  pursue. 
— Charity  is  as  important  as  all  other  virtues  com- 
bined.— Be  tender  and  yielding  like  a  reed,  not  hard 
and  proud  like  a  cedar. — The  hypocrite  will  not  see 
God. — It  is  not  sufficient  to  be  innocent  before  God ; 
we  must  show  our  innocence  to  the  world. — The 
works  encouraged  by  a  good  man  are  better  than 
those  he  executes. — Woe  unto  him  that  practices 
usury,  he  shall  not  live;  whithersoever  he  goes,  he 
carries  injustice  and  death. 

The  same  Talmud  that  fills  chapter  after  chapter 
with  minute  legal  details  and  hairsplitting  debates 
outlines  with  a  few  strokes  the  most  ideal  conception 
of  life,  worth  more  than  theories  and  systems  of 
religious  philosophy.  A  Haggada  passage  says: 
Six  hundred  and  thirteen  injunctions  were  given  by 
Moses  to  the  people  of  Israel.  David  reduced  them 
to  eleven;  the  prophet  Isaiah  classified  these  under 
six  heads;  Micah  enumerated  only  three:  "What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God." 
Another  prophet  limited  them  to  two :  "  Keep  ye 
judgment,  and  do  righteousness."  Amos  put  all  the 
commandments  under  one :  "  Seek  ye  me,  and  ye 
shall  live";  and  Habakkuk  said:  "The  just  shall 
live  by  his  faith." — This  is  the  ethics  of  the  Talmud. 

Another  characteristic  manifestation  of  the  ideal- 
ism of  the  Talmud  is  its  delicate  feeling  for  women 
and  children.  Almost  extravagant  affection  is  dis- 


64  THE   TALMUD 

played  for  the  little  ones.  All  the  verses  of  Scrip- 
ture that  speak  of  flowers  and  gardens  are  applied  in 
the  Talmud  to  children  and  schools.  Their  breath 
sustains  the  moral  order  of  the  universe :  "  Out  of 
the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  has  God  founded 
His  might."  They  are  called  flowers,  stars,  the 
anointed  of  God.  When  God  was  about  to  give  the 
Law,  He  demanded  of  the  Israelites  pledges  to  as- 
sure Him  that  they  would  keep  His  commandments 
holy.  They  offered  the  patriarchs,  but  each  one  of 
them  had  committed  some  sin.  They  named  Moses 
as  their  surety;  not  even  he  was  guiltless.  Then 
they  said :  "  Let  our  children  be  our  hostages."  The 
Lord  accepted  them. 

Similarly,  there  are  many  expressions  to  show  that 
woman  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  rabbis  of  the 
Talmud:  Love  thy  wife  as  thyself;  honor  her  more 
than  thyself. — In  choosing  a  wife,  descend  a  step. — 
If  thy  wife  is  small,  bend  and  whisper  into  her  ear. — 
God's  altar  weeps  for  him  that  forsakes  the  love  of 
his  youth. — He  who  sees  his  wife  die  before  him  has, 
as  it  were,  been  present  at  the  destruction  of  the 
sanctuary  itself;  around  him  the  world  grows  dark. 
— It  is  woman  alone  through  whom  God's  blessings 
are  vouchsafed  to  a  house. — The  children  of  him 
that  marries  for  money  shall  be  a  curse  unto  him, — 
a  warning  singularly  applicable  to  the  circumstances 
of  our  own  times. 

The  peculiar  charm  of  the  Haggada  is  best  re- 
vealed in  its  legends  and  tales,  its  fables  and  myths, 
its  apologues  and  allegories,  its  riddles  and  songs. 


THF   TALMUD  6$ 

The  starting-point  of  the  Haggada  usually  is  some 
memory  of  the  great  past.  It  entwines  and  enmeshes 
in  a  magic  network  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs,  pro- 
phets, and  martyrs,  and  clothes  with  fresh,  luxuriant 
green  the  old  ideals  and  figures,  giving  them  new 
life  for  a  remote  generation.  The  teachers  of  the 
Haggada  allow  no  opportunity,  sad  or  merry,  to 
pass  without  utilizing  it  in  the  guise  of  an  apologue 
or  parable.  Alike  for  wedding-feasts  and  funerals, 
for  -banquets  and  days  of  fasting,  the  garden  of  the 
Haggada  is  rifled  of  its  fragrant  blossoms  and  lus- 
cious fruits.  Simplicity,  grace,  and  childlike  merri- 
ment pervade  its  fables,  yet  they  are  profound,  even 
sublime,  in  their  truth.  "  Their  chief  and  enduring 
charm  is  their  fathomless  depth,  their  unassuming 
loveliness."  Poems  constructed  with  great  artistic 
skill  do  not  occur.  Here  and  there  a  modest  bud  of 
lyric  poesy  shyly  raises  its  head,  like  the  following 
couplet,  describing  a  celebrated  but  ill-favored 
rabbi : 

"  Without  charm  of  form  and  face, 
But  a  mind  of  rarest  grace." 

Over  the  grave  of  the  same  teacher  the  Talmud 
wails : 

"  The  Holy  Land  did  beautify  what  womb  of  Shinar  gave  ; 
And  now  Tiberias'  tear-filled  eye  weeps  o'er  her  treasure's 
grave." 

On  seeing  the  dead  body  of  the  Patriarch  Yehuda, 
a  rabbi  laments: 


66  THE   TALMUD 

"  Angels  strove  to  win  the  testimony's  ark. 
Men  they  overcame  ;  lo  !  vanished  is  the  ark  !  " 

Another  threnody  over  some  prince  in  the  realm 
of  the  intellect: 

"  The  cedar  hath  by  flames  been  seized ; 
Can  hyssop  then  be  saved  ? 
Leviathan  with  hook  was  caught; 
Alas  !  ye  little  fish  ! 
The  deep  and  mighty  stream  ran  dry, 
Ah  woe  !  ye  shallow  brooks  !  " 

Nor  is  humor  lacking.  "  Ah,  hamper  great,  with 
books  well-filled,  thou'rt  gone!"  is  a  bookworm's 
eulogy. 

Poets  naturally  have  not  been  slow  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  material  stored  in  the  Haggada.  Many 
of  its  treasures,  tricked  out  in  modern  verse,  have 
been  given  to  the  world.  The  following  are 
samples  i1 

BIRTH  AND  DEATH 

"  His  hands  fast  clenched,  his  ringers  firmly  clasped, 
So  man  this  life  begins. 

He  claims  earth's  wealth,  and  constitutes  himself 
The  heir  of  all  her  gifts. 
He  thinks  his  hand  may  snatch  and  hold 
Whatever  life  doth  yield. 

But  when  at  last  the  end  has  come, 

His  hands  are  open  wide, 

No  longer  closed.     He  knoweth  now  full  well, 

That  vain  were  all  his  hopes. 

He  humbly  says,  '  I  go,  and  nothing  take 

Of  all  my  hands  have  wrought.'  " 

1  M.  Sachs,  Stimmen  vom  Jordan  und  Kuphrat. 


THE   TALMUD  6/ 

The  next,  "  Interest  and  Usury,"  may  serve  to 
give  the  pertinacious  opponent  of  the  Talmud  a 
better  opinion  of  its  position  on  financial  subjects: 

"  Behold  !  created  things  of  every  kind 

Lend  each  to  each.     The  day  from  night  doth  take, 
And  night  from  day  ;  nor  do  they  quarrel  make 

Like  men,  who  doubting  one  another's  mind, 

E'en  while  they  utter  friendly  words,  think  ill. 
The  moon  delighted  helps  the  starry  host, 
And  each  returns  her  gift  without  a  boast. 

'Tis  only  when  the  Lord  supreme  doth  will 

That  earth  in  gloom  shall  be  enwrapped, 

He  tells  the  moon  :    '  Refrain,  keep  back  thy  light !  ' 
And  quenches,  too,  the  myriad  lamps  of  night. 

From  wisdom's  fount  hath  knowledge  ofttimes  lapped, 

While  wisdom  humbly  doth  from  knowledge  learn. 
The  skies  drop  blessings  on  the  grateful  earth, 
And  she — of  precious  store  there  is  no  dearth — 

Exhales  and  sends  aloft  a  fair  return. 

Stern  law  with  mercy  tempers  its  decree, 

And  mercy  acts  with  strength  by  justice  lent. 
Good  deeds  are  based  on  creed  from  heaven  sent, 

In  which,  in  turn,  the  sap  of  deeds  must  be. 

Each  creature  borrows,  lends,  and  gives  with  love, 
Nor  e'er  disputes,  to  honor  God  above. 

When  man,  howe'er,  his  fellowman  hath  fed, 

Then  'spite  the  law  forbidding  interest, 

He  thinketh  naught  but  cursed  gain  to  wrest. 
Who  taketh  usury  methinks  hath  said  : 
'  O  Lord,  in  beauty  has  Thy  earth  been  wrought  ! 

But  why  should  men  for  naught  enjoy  its  plains  ? 

Ask  usance,  since  'tis  Thou  that  sendest  rains. 
Have  they  the  trees,  their  fruits,  and  blossoms  bought  ? 
For  all  they  here  enjoy,  Thy  int'rest  claim  : 


68  THE    TALMUD 

For  heaven's  orbs  that  shine  by  day  and  night, 

Th'  immortal  soul  enkindled  by  Thy  light, 
And  for  the  wondrous  structure  of  their  frame.' 
But  God  replies  :   '  Now  come,  and  see  !  I  give 

\Vith  open,  bounteous  hand,  yet  nothing  take  ; 

The  earth  yields  wealth,  nor  must  return  ye  make. 
But  know,  O  men,  that  only  while  ye  live, 
You  may  enjoy  these  gifts  of  my  award. 

The  capital's  mine,  and  surely  I'll  demand 

The  spirit  in  you  planted  by  my  hand, 
And  also  earth  will  claim  her  due  reward.' 

Man's  dust  to  dust  is  gathered  in  the  grave, 

His  soul  returns  to  God  who  gracious  gave." 

R.  Yehuda  ben  Zakkaii  answers  his  pupils  who 
ask: 

"  Why  doth  the  Law  with  them  more  harshly  deal 

That  filch  a  lamb  from  fold  away, 
Than  with  the  highwaymen  who  shameless  steal 
Thy  purse  by  force  in  open  day  ? " 

"  Because  in  like  esteem  the  brigands  hold 

The  master  and  his  serving  man. 
Their  wickedness  is  open,  frank,  and  bold, 
They  fear  not  God,  nor  human  ban. 

The  thief  feels  more  respect  for  earthly  law 

Than  for  his  heav'nly  Master's  eye, 
Man's  presence  flees  in  fear  and  awe, 

Forgets  he's  seen  by  God  on  high." 

That  is  a  glimpse  of  the  world  of  the  Haggada — 
a  wonderful,  fantastic  world,  a  kaleidoscopic  pano- 
rama of  enchanting  views.  "  Well  can  we  under- 
stand the  distress  of  mind  in  a  mediaeval  divine,  or 


THE  TALMUD  69 

even  in  a  modern  savant,  who,  bent  upon  following 
the  most  subtle  windings  of  some  scientific  debate  in 
the  Talmudical  pages — geometrical,  botanical,  finan- 
cial, or  otherwise — as  it  revolves  round  the  Sabbath 
journey,  the  raising  of  seeds,  the  computation  of 
tithes  and  taxes — feels,  as  it  were,  the  ground  sud- 
denly give  way.  The  loud  voices  grow  thin,  the 
doors  and  walls  of  the  school-room  vanish  before  his 
eyes,  and  in  their  place  uprises  Rome  the  Great,  the 
Urbs  et  Orbis  and  her  million-voiced  life.  Or  the 
blooming  vineyards  round  that  other  City  of  Hills, 
Jerusalem  the  Golden  herself,  are  seen,  and  white- 
clad  virgins  move  dreamily  among  them.  Snatches 
of  their  songs  are  heard,  the  rhythm  of  their  choric 
dances  rises  and  falls:  it  is  the  most  dread  Day  of 
Atonement  itself,  which,  in  poetical  contrast,  was 
chosen  by  the  '  Rose  of  Sharon '  as  a  day  of  rejoic- 
ing to  walk  among  those  waving  lily-fields  and  vine- 
clad  slopes.  Or  the  clarion  of  rebellion  rings  high 
and  shrill  through  the  complicated  debate,  and  Bel- 
shazzar,  the  story  of  whose  ghastly  banquet  is  told 
with  all  the  additions  of  maddening  horror,  is  doing 
service  for  Nero  the  bloody;  or  Nebuchadnezzar, 
the  Babylonian  tyrant,  and  all  his  hosts,  are  cursed 
with  a  yelling  curse — a  propos  of  some  utterly  inap- 
propriate legal  point,  while  to  the  initiated  he  stands 
for  Titus  the— at  last  exploded— <  Delight  of  Hu- 
manity.' .  .  .  Often — far  too  often  for  the  inter- 
ests of  study  and  the  glory  of  the  human  race — does 
the  steady  tramp  of  the  Roman  cohort,  the  pass- 
word of  the  revolution,  the  shriek  and  clangor  of  the 


7O  THE   TALMUD 

bloody  field,  interrupt  these  debates,  and  the  argu- 
ing masters  and  disciples  don  their  arms,  and,  with 
the  cry,  '  Jerusalem  and  Liberty/  rush  to  the  fray/'1 
Such  is  the  world  of  the  Talmud. 

1  Emanuel  Deutsch,  "Literary  Remains,"  p.  45. 


THE  JEW   IN  THE  HISTORY   OF 
CIVILIZATION1 

In  the  childhood  of  civilization,  the  digging  of 
wells  was  regarded  as  beneficent  work.  Guide- 
posts,  visible  from  afar,  marked  their  position,  and 
hymns  were  composed,  and  solemn  feasts  celebrated, 
in  honor  of  the  event  One  of  the  choicest  bits  of 
early  Hebrew  poetry  is  a  song  of  the  well.  The 
soul,  in  grateful  joy,  jubilantly  calls  to  her  mates: 
"Arise!  sing  a  song  unto  the  well!  Well,  which  the 
princes  have  dug,  which  the  nobles  of  the  people 
have  hollowed  out."2  This  house,  too,  is  a  guide- 
post  to  a  newly-found  well  of  humanity  and  culture, 
a  monument  to  our  faithfulness  and  zeal  in  the  rec- 
ognition and  the  diffusion  of  truth.  A  scene  like 
this  brings  to  my  mind  the  psalmist's  beautiful 
words:3  "  Behold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is 
for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity.  It  is  like 
the  precious  ointment  upon  the  head,  that  ran  down 
upon  the  beard,  even  Aaron's  beard,  that  went  down 
to  the  skirts  of  his  garment;  as  the  dew  of  Hermon, 
running  down  upon  the  mountains  of  Zion ;  for  there 
hath  the  Lord  commanded  the  blessing,  even  life 
for  evermore." 

1  Address  at  the  dedication  of  the  new  meeting-house  of  the 
Independent  Order  B'nai  B'rith,  at  Berlin. 
*  Numbers,  xxi.  17,  18.  3  Psalm  cxxxiii. 

71 


72      THE  JEW  IN  THE   HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

Wondrous  thoughts  veiled  with  wondrous  im- 
agery !  The  underlying  meaning  will  lead  us  to  our 
feast  of  the  well,  our  celebration  in  honor  of  newly- 
discovered  waters.  Our  order  is  based  upon  the 
conviction  that  all  men  should  be  banded  together 
for  purposes  of  humanity.  But  what  is  humanity? 
Not  philanthropy,  not  benevolence,  not  charity :  it  is 
"human  culture  risen  to  the  stage  on  which  man  is 
conscious  of  universal  brotherhood,  and  strives  for 
the  realization  of  the  general  good."  In  early  times, 
leaders  of  men  were  anointed  with  oil,  symbol  of 
wisdom  and  divine  inspiration.  Above  all  it  was 
meet  that  it  be  used  in  the  consecration  of  priests, 
the  exponents  of  the  divine  spirit  and  the  Law.  The 
psalmist's  idea  is,  that  as  the  precious  ointment  in  its 
abundance  runs  down  Aaron's  beard  to  the  hem  of 
his  garment,  even  so  shall  wisdom  and  the  divine 
spirit  overflow  the  lips  of  priests,  the  guides,  friends, 
and  teachers  of  the  people,  the  promoters  of  the  law 
of  peace  and  love. 

"  As  the  dew  of  Hermon,  running  down  upon  the 
mountains  of  Zion!"  High  above  all  mountains 
towers  Hermon,  its  crest  enveloped  by  clouds  and 
covered  with  eternal  snow.  From  that  supernal 
peak  grateful  dew  trickles  down,  fructifying  the 
land  once  "  flowing  with  milk  and  honey."  From 
its  clefts  gushes  forth  Jordan,  mightiest  stream  of 
the  land,  watering  a  broad  plain  in  its  course.  In 
this  guise  the  Lord  has  granted  His  blessing  to  the 
land,  the  blessing  of  civilization  and  material  pros- 
perity, from  which  spring  as  corollaries  the  duties  of 
charity  and  universal  humanity. 


THE  JEW   IN  THE   HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION       73 

A  picture  of  the  olden  time  this,  a  lodge-address 
of  the  days  of  the  psalm  singers.  Days  flee,  time 
abides;  men  pass  away,  mankind  endures.  Filled 
with  time-honored  thoughts,  inspired  by  the  hopes 
of  by-gone  generations,  striving  for  the  goal  of 
noble  men  in  all  ages,  like  the  psalm  singers  in  the 
days  of  early  culture,  we  celebrate  a  feast  of  the  well 
by  reviewing  the  past  and  looking  forward  down  the 
avenues  of  time. 

Less  than  fifty  years  ago  a  band  of  energetic,  loyal 
Jews,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  founded  our 
beloved  Order.  Now  it  has  established  itself  in 
every  part  of  the  world,  from  the  extreme  western 
coast  of  America  to  the  blessed  meadows  of  the  Jor- 
dan; yea,  even  the  Holy  Land,  unfurling  every- 
where the  banner  of  charity,  brotherly  love,  and 
unity,  and  seeking  to  spread  education  and  culture, 
the  forerunners  of  humanity.  Judaism,  mark  you, 
is  the  religion  of  humanity.  By  far  too  late  for  our 
good  and  that  of  mankind,  we  began  to  proclaim 
this  truth  with  becoming  energy  and  emphasis,  and 
to  demonstrate  it  with  the  joyousness  of  conviction. 
The  question  is,  are  we  permeated  with  this  convic- 
tion? Our  knowledge  of  Judaism  is  slight;  we  have 
barely  a  suspicion  of  what  in  the  course  of  centuries, 
nay,  of  thousands  of  years,  it  has  done  for  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization.  In  my  estimation,  our  house- 
warming  cannot  more  fittingly  be  celebrated  than  by 
taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Jewish  culture. 

The  Bible  is  the  text-book  of  general  literature. 
Out  of  the  Bible,  more  particularly  from  the  Ten 


74      THE  JEW  IN   THE  HISTORY  OF   CIVILIZATION 

Commandments,  flashed  from  Sinai,  mankind 
learned  its  first  ethical  lesson  in  a  system  which  still 
satisfies  its  needs.  To  convey  even  a  faint  idea  of 
what  the  Bible  has  done  for  civilization,  morality, 
and  the  literature  of  every  people — of  the  innumer- 
able texts  it  has  furnished  to  poets,  and  subjects  to 
painters — would  in  itself  require  a  literature. 

The  conflicts  with  surrounding  nations  to  which 
they  were  exposed  made  the  Jews  concentrate  their 
forces,  and  so  enabled  them  to  wage  successful  war 
with  nations  mightier  than  themselves.  Their  hero- 
ism under  the  Maccabees  and  under  Bar-Kochba,  in 
the  middle  ages  and  in  modern  days,  permits  them 
to  take  rank  among  the  most  valiant  in  history.  A 
historian  of  literature,  a  non-Jew,  enumerates  three 
factors  constituting  Jews  important  agents  in  the 
preservation  and  revival  of  learning:1  First,  their 
ability  as  traders.  The  Phoenicians  are  regarded  as 
the  oldest  commercial  nation,  but  the  Jews  contested 
the  palm  with  them.  Zebulon  and  Asher  in  very 
early  times  were  seafaring  tribes.  Under  Solomon, 
Israelitish  vessels  sailed  as  far  as  Ophir  to  bring 
Afric's  gold  to  Jerusalem.  Before  the  destruction 
of  the  Holy  City,  Jewish  communities  established 
themselves  on  the  westernmost  coast  of  Europe. 
"  The  whole  of  the  known  world  was  covered  with 
their  settlements,  in  constant  communication  with 
one  another  through  itinerant  merchants,  who  ef- 
fected an  exchange  of  learning  as  well  as  of  wares; 

1  M.  J.  Schleiden  :  Die  Bedeuturig  der  Juden  fiir  die  Erhal- 
tung  der  Wissenschaften  ini  Miticlalter,  p.  7. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY   OF  CIVILIZATION      75 

while  the  other  nations  grew  more  and  more  iso- 
lated, and  shut  themselves  off  from  even  the  sparse 
opportunities  of  mental  culture  then  available." 

The  second  factor  conducing  to  mental  advance- 
ment was  the  schools  which  have  flourished  in  Is- 
rael since  the  days  of  the  prophet  Samuel;  and  the 
third  was  the  linguistic  attainments  of  the  Jews, 
which  they  owed  to  natural  ability  in  this  direction. 
Scarcely  had  Greek  allied  itself  with  Hebrew 
thought,  when  Jews  in  Alexandria  wrote  Greek  com- 
parable with  Plato's,  and  not  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years  after  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Arabia  we 
meet  with  a  large  number  of  Jewish  poets  among 
Mohammed's  disciples,  while  in  the  middle  ages 
they  taught  and  wrote  Arabic,  Spanish,  French,  and 
German — versatility  naturally  favorable  to  intellec- 
tual progress. 

Jewish  influence  may  be  said  to  have  begun  to  ex- 
ercise itself  upon  general  culture  when  Judaism  and 
Hellenism  met  for  the  first  time.  The  result  of  the 
meeting  was  the  new  product,  Judaeo-Hellenic  lit- 
erature. Greek  civilization  was  attractive  to  Jews. 
The  new  ideas  were  popularized  for  all  strata  of  the 
people  to  imbibe.  Shortly  before  the  old  pagan 
world  crumbled,  Hellenism  enjoyed  a  beautiful,  un- 
expected revival  in  Alexandria.  There,  strange  to 
say,  Judaism,  in  its  home  antagonistic  to  Hellenism, 
had  filled  and  allied  itself  with  the  Greek  spirit.  Its 
literature  gradually  adopted  Greek  traditions,  and 
the  ripe  fruit  of  the  union  was  the  Jewish-Alexan- 
drian religious  philosophy,  the  mediation  between 


76      THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

two  sharply  contradictory  systems,  for  the  first  time 
brought  into  close  juxtaposition,  and  requiring  some 
such  new  element  to  harmonize  them.  When  an- 
cient civilization  in  Judaea  and  in  Hellas  fell  into 
decay,  human  endeavor  was  charged  with  the  task 
of  reconciling  these  two  great  historical  forces  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  each  other,  and  the  first  at- 
tempt looking  to  this  end  was  inspired  by  a  Jewish 
genius,  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  Jews  of  Alexandria  were  engaged  in  wide- 
spread trade  and  shipping,  and  they  counted  among 
them  artists,  poets,  civil  officers,  and  mechanics. 
They  naturally  acquired  Greek  customs,  and  along 
with  them  Hellenic  vices.  The  bacchanalia  of 
Athens  were  enthusiastically  imitated  in  Jerusalem, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in  Alexandria.  This 
point  reached,  Roman  civilization  asserted  itself,  and 
the  people  sought  to  affiliate  with  their  Roman  vic- 
tors, while  the  rabbis  devoted  themselves  to  the 
Law,  not,  however,  to  the  exclusion  of  scientific, 
work.  In  the  ranks  of  physicians  and  astronomers 
we  find  Jewish  masters  and  Jewish  disciples.  Medi- 
cine has  always  been  held  in  high  esteem  by  Jews, 
and  Samuel  could  justly  boast  before  his  contem- 
poraries that  the  intricate  courses  of  the  stars  were 
as  well  known  to  him  as  the  streets  of  Nehardea  in 
Babylonia.1 

The  treasures  of  information  on  pedagogics,  med- 
icine, jurisprudence,  astronomy,  geography,  zool- 
ogy, botany,  and  last,  though  not  least,  on  general 

1  Moed  Katan,  z6a. 


THE  JEW  IN   THE   HISTORY   OF   CIVILIZATION       77 

history,  buried  in  the  Talmud,  have  hitherto  not 
been  valued  at  their  true  worth.  The  rabbis  of  the 
Talmud  stood  in  the  front  ranks  of  culture.  They 
compiled  a  calendar,  in  complete  accord  with  the 
Metonic  cycle,  which  modern  science  must  declare 
faultless.  Their  classification  of  the  bones  of  the 
human  body  varies  but  little  from  present  results  of 
the  science  of  anatomy,  and  the  Talmud  demon- 
strates that  certain  Mishna  ordinances  are  based 
upon  geometrical  propositions,  which  could  have 
been  known  to  but  few  mathematicians  of  that  time. 
Rabbi  Gamaliel,  said  to  have  made  use  of  a  teles- 
cope, was  celebrated  as  a  mathematician  and  as- 
tronomer, and  in  289  C.  E.,  Rabbi  Joshua  is  re- 
ported to  have  calculated  the  orbit  of  Halley's 
comet. 

The  Roman  conquest  of  Palestine  effected  a 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  Jews.  Never  before 
had  Judah  undergone  such  torture  and  suffering  as 
under  the  sceptre  of  Rome.  The  misery  became 
unendurable,  and  internal  disorders  being  added  to 
foreign  oppression,  the  luckless  insurrection  broke 
out  which  gave  the  deathblow  to  Jewish  nationality, 
and  drove  Judah  into  exile.  On  his  thorny  martyr's 
path  he  took  naught  with  him  but  a  book — his  code, 
his  law.  Yet  how  prodigal  his  contributions  to 
mankind's  fund  of  culture! 

About  five  hundred  years  later  Judah  saw  spring- 
ing up  on  his  own  soil  a  new  religion  which  ap- 
propriated the  best  and  the  most  beautiful  of  his 
spiritual  possessions.  Swiftly  rose  the  vast  political 


78       THE  JEW  IN  THE   HISTORY   OF  CIVILIZATION 

and  intellectual  structure  of  Mohammedan  power, 
and  as  before  with  Greek,  so  Jewish  thought  now 
allied  itself  with.  Arabic  endeavor,  bringing  forth  in 
Spain  the  golden  age  of  neo-Hebraic  literature  in 
the  spheres  of  poetry,  metaphysical  speculation,  and 
every  department  of  scientific  research.  It  is  not  an 
exaggerated  estimate  to  say  that  the  middle  ages 
sustained  themselves  with  the  fruit  of  this  intellec- 
tual labor,  which,  moreover,  has  come  down  as  a 
legacy  to  our  modern  era.  Two  hundred  years 
after  Mohammed,  the  same  language,  Arabic,  was 
spoken  by  the  Jews  of  Kairwan  and  those  of  Bag- 
dad. Thus  equipped,  they  performed  in  a  remark- 
able way  the  task  allotted  them  by  their  talents  and 
their  circumstances,  to  which  they  had  been  devoting 
themselves  with  singular  zeal  for  two  centuries.  The 
Jews  are  missioned  mediators  between  the  Orient 
and  the  Occident,  and  their  activity  as  such,  illus- 
trated by  their  additions  to  general  culture  and 
science,  is  of  peculiar  interest.  In  the  period  under 
consideration,  their  linguistic  accomplishments  fitted 
them  to  assist  the  Syrians  in  making  Greek  litera- 
ture accessible  to  the  Arabic  mind.  In  Arabic  lit- 
erature itself,  they  attained  to  a  prominent  place. 
Modern  research  has  not  yet  succeeded  in  shedding 
light  upon  the  development  and  spread  of  science 
among  the  Arabs  under  the  tutelage  of  Syrian  Chris- 
tians. But  out  of  the  obscurity  of  Greek-Arabic 
culture  beginnings  gleam  Jewish  names,  whose  pos- 
sessors were  the  teachers  of  eager  Arabic  disciples. 
Barely  fifty  years  after  the  hosts  of  the  Prophet  had 


THE  JEW   IN   THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION       79 

conquered  the  Holy  Land,  a  Jew  of  Bassora  trans- 
lated from  Syriac  into  Arabic  the  pandects  by  the 
presbyter  Aaron,  a  famous  medical  work  of  the 
middle  ages.  In  the  annals  of  the  next  century, 
among  the  early  contributors  to  Arabic  literature, 
we  meet  with  the  names  of  Jews  as  translators  of 
medical,  mathematical,  and  astronomical  works,  and 
as  grammarians,  astronomers,  scientists,  and  physi- 
cians. A  Jew  translated  Ptolemy's  "Almagest"; 
another  assisted  in  the  first  translation  of  the  Indian 
fox  fables  (Katila  we-Dimnd}\  the  first  furnishing  the 
middle  ages  with  the  basis  of  their  astronomical 
science,  the  second  supplying  European  poets  with 
literary  material.  Through  the  instrumentality  of 
Jews,  Arabs  became  acquainted  as  early  as  the 
eighth  century,  some  time  before  the  learning  of  the 
Greeks  was  brought  within  their  reach,  with  Indian 
medicine,  astronomy,  and  poetry.  Greek  science 
itself  they  owed  to  Jewish  mediation.  Not  only 
among  Jews,  but  also  among  Greeks,  Syrians,  and 
Arabs,  Jewish  versatility  gave  currency  to  the  belief 
that  "  all  wisdom  is  of  the  Jews,"  a  view  often  re- 
peated by  Hellenists,  by  the  "  Righteous  Brethren  " 
among  the  Arabs,  and  later  by  the  Christian  monks 
of  Europe. 

The  academies  of  the  Jews  have  always  been  per- 
vaded by  a  scientific  spirit.  As  they  influenced 
others,  so  they  permitted  the  science  and  culture  of 
their  neighbors  to  act  upon  their  life  and  work. 
There  is  no  doubt,  for  instance,  that,  despite  the 
marked  difference  between  the  subjects  treated  by 


8O     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

Arabs  and  Jews,  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  old 
Arabic  lyrics  shaped  neo-Hebraic  poetry.  Again, 
as  the  Hebrew  acrostic  psalms  demonstrably  served 
as  models  to  the  older  Syrian  Church  poets,  so,  in 
turn,  Syriac  psalmody  probably  became  the  pattern 
synagogue  poetry  followed.  Thus  Hebrew  poetry 
completed  a  circuit,  which,  to  be  sure,  cannot  accu- 
rately be  followed  up  through  its  historical  stages, 
but  which  critical  investigations  and  the  compara- 
tive study  of  literatures  have  established  almost  as  a 
certainty. 

In  the  ninth  century  a  bold,  venturesome  traveller, 
Eldad  ha-Dani,1  a  sort  of  Jewish  Ulysses,  appeared 
among  Jews,  and  at  the  same  time  Judaism  pro- 
duced Sa'adia,  its  first  great  religious  philosopher 
and  Bible  translator.  The  Church  Fathers  had  al- 
ways looked  up  to  the  rabbis  as  authorities;  hence- 
forth Jews  were  accepted  by  all  scholars  as  the 
teachers  of  Bible  exegesis.  Saadia  was  the  first  of 
the  rabbis  to  translate  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into 
Arabic.  Justly  his  work  is  said  to  "recognize  the 
current  of  thought  dominant  in  his  time,  and  to  ex- 
press the  newly-awakened  desire  for  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  religious  practice,  as  developed  in  the  course 
of  generations,  with  the  source  of  religious  inspira- 
tion." Besides,  he  was  the  first  to  elaborate  a  sys- 
tem of  religious  philosophy  according  to  a  rigid 
plan,  and  in  a  strictly  scientific  spirit.2  Knowing 
Greek  speculations,  he  controverts  them  as  vigor- 

1  Cmp.   "  Israel's  Quest  in  Africa,"  pp.  257-258 

1  Cmp.   Gutmawn,  Die  Religionsphilosophie  des  Saddja. 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION     8 1 

ously  as  the  Kaldm  of  Islam  philosophy.  His 
teachings  form  a  system  of  practical  ethics,  luminous 
reflections,  and  sound  maxims.  Among  his  con- 
temporaries was  Isaac  Israeli,  a  physician  at  Kair- 
wan,  whose  works,  in  their  Latin  translation  by  the 
monk  Constantine,  attained  great  reputation,  and 
were  later  plagiarized  by  medical  writers.  His  trea- 
tise on  fever  was  esteemed  of  high  worth,  a  transla- 
tion of  it  being  studied  as  a  text-book  for  centuries, 
and  his  dietetic  writings  remained  authoritative  for 
five  hundred  years.  In  general,  the  medical  science 
of  the  Arabs  is  under  great  obligations  to  him. 
Reverence  for  Jewish  medical  ability  was  so  exag- 
gerated in  those  days  that  Galen  was  identified  with 
the  Jewish  sage  Gamaliel.  The  error  was  fostered 
in  the  Sefer  Asa/,  a  curious  medical  fragment  of  un- 
certain authorship  and  origin,  by  its  rehearsal  of  an 
old  Midrash,  which  traces  the  origin  of  medicine  to 
Shem,  son  of  Noah,  who  received  it  from  angels, 
and  transmitted  it  to  the  ancient  Chaldeans,  they  in 
turn  passing  it  on  to  the  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and 
Arabs. 

Though  the  birth  of  medicine  is  not  likely  to  have 
taken  place  among  Jews,  it  is  indisputable  that  phy- 
sicians of  the  Jewish  race  are  largely  to  be  credited 
with  the  development  of  medical  science  at  every 
period.  At  the  time  we  speak  of,  Jews  in  Egypt, 
northern  Africa,  Italy,  Spain,  France,  and  Germany 
were  physicians  in  ordinary  to  caliphs,  emperors, 
and  popes,  and  everywhere  they  are  represented 
among  medical  writers.  The  position  occupied  in 


82     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF   CIVILIZATION 

the  Arabian  world  by  Israeli,  in  the  Occident  was 
occupied  by  Sabatta'i  Donnolo,  one  of  the  Salerno 
school  in  its  early  obscure  days,  the  author  of  a  work 
on  Materia  vicdica,  possibly  the  oldest  original  pro- 
duction on  medicine  in  the  Hebrew  language. 

The  period  of  Jewish  prosperity  in  Spain  has  been 
called  a  fairy  vision  of  history.  The  culture  de- 
veloped under  its  genial  influences  pervaded  the 
middle  ages,  and  projected  suggestions  even  into 
our  modern  era.  One  of  the  most  renowned  savants 
at  the  beginning  of  the  period  was  the  statesman 
Chasdai  ben  Shaprut,  whose  translation  of  Diosco- 
rides's  "  Plant  Lore  "  served  as  the  botanical  text- 
book of  mediaeval  Europe.  The  first  poet  was 
Solomon  ibn  Gabirol,  the  author  of  "The  Source 
of  Life,"  a  systematic  exposition  of  Neoplatonic 
philosophy,  a  book  of  most  curious  fortunes. 
Through  the  Latin  translation,  made  with  the  help 
of  an  apostate  Jew,  and  bearing  the  author's  name  in 
the  mutilated  form  of  Avencebrol,  later  changed  into 
Avicebron,  scholasticism  became  saturated  with  its 
philosophic  ideas.  The  pious  fathers  of  Christian 
philosophy,  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas, 
took  pains  to  refute  them,  while  Duns  Scotus  and 
Giordano  Bruno  frequently  consulted  the  work  as 
an  authority.  In  the  struggle  between  the  Scotists 
and  the  Thomists  it  had  a  prominent  place  as  late 
as  the  fourteenth  century,  the  contestants  taking  it 
to  be  the  work  of  some  great  Christian  philosopher 
standing  on  the  threshold  of  the  Occident  and  at  the 
portals  of  philosophy.  So  it  happened  that  the 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION     83 

author  came  down  through  the  centuries,  recognized 
by  none,  forgotten  by  his  own,  until,  in  our  time, 
behind  the  Moorish-Christian  mask  of  Avencebrol, 
Solomon  Munk  discovered  the  Jewish  thinker  and 
poet  Solomon  ibn  Gabirol. 

The  work  De  Causis,  attributed  to  David,  a  for- 
gotten Jewish  philosopher,  must  be  classed  with 
Gabirol's  "  Source  of  Life,"  on  account  of  its  Neo- 
platonism  and  its  paramount  influence  upon  schol- 
asticism. In  fact,  only  by  means  of  a  searching 
analysis  of  these  two  works  can  insight  be  gained 
into  the  development  and  aberrations  of  the  dog- 
matic system  of  mediaeval  philosophy. 

Other  sciences,  too,  especially  mathematics,  flour- 
ished among  them.  One  century  after  he  wrote 
them,  the  works  of  Abraham  ibn  Ezra,  renowned  as 
an  astronomer  and  mathematician,  were  translated 
into  Latin  by  Italians,  among  whom  his  prestige 
was  so  great  that,  as  may  still  be  seen,  he  was 
painted  among  the  expounders  of  mathematical 
science  in  an  Italian  church  fresco  representing  the 
seven  liberal  arts.  Under  the  name  Abraham  Ju- 
daeus,  later  corrupted  into  Avenare,  he  is  met  with 
throughout  the  middle  ages.  Abraham  ben  Chiya, 
another  distinguished  scientist,  known  by  the  name 
Savasorda,  compiled  the  first  systematic  outline  of 
astronomy,  and  in  his  geographical  treatise,  he  ex- 
plained the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  while  the  Latin 
translation  of  his  geometry,  based  on  Arabic  sources, 
proves  him  to  have  made  considerable  additions  to 
the  stock  of  knowledge  in  this  branch.  Moses 


84     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

Maimuni's  intellectual  vigor,  and  his  influence  upon 
the  schoolmen  through  his  medical,  and  more  par- 
ticularly his  religio-philosophical  works,  are  too  well 
known  to  need  more  than  passing  mention. 

Even  in  southern  France  and  in  Germany,  whither 
the  light  of  culture  did  not  spread  so  rapidly  as  in 
Spain,  Jews  participated  in  the  development  of  the 
sciences.  Solomon  ben  Isaac,  called  Rashi,  the 
great  exegete,  was  looked  up  to  as  an  authority  by 
others  beside  his  brethren  in  faith.  Nicolas  de 
Lyra,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Christian  Bible 
exegetes,  confesses  that  his  simple  explanations  of 
Scriptural  passages  are  derived  pre-eminently  from 
Rashi's  Bible  commentary,  and  among  scientific 
men  it  is  acknowledged  that  precisely  in  the  matter 
of  exegesis  this  French  monk  exercised  decisive  in- 
fluence upon  Martin  Luther.  So  it  happens  that  in 
places  Luther's  Bible  translation  reveals  Rashi  seen 
through  Xicolas  de  Lyra's  spectacles. 

In  the  quickened  intellectual  life  of  Provence 
Jews  also  took  active  part  David  Kimchi  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  the  teacher  par  excellence  of 
Hebrew  grammar  and  lexicography,  and  Judah  ibn 
Tibbon,  one  of  the  most  notable  of  translators,  in 
his  testament  addressed  to  his  son  made  a  complete 
presentation  of  contemporary  science,  a  cyclopaedia 
of  the  Arabic  and  the  Hebrew  language  and  litera- 
ture, grammar,  poetry,  botany,  zoology,  natural  his- 
tory, and  particularly  religious  philosophy,  the 
studies  of  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud. 

The  golden  age  of  letters  was  followed  by  a  less 


THE    JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION     85 

creative  period,  a  significant  turning-point  in  the 
history  of  Judaism  as  of  spiritual  progress  in  gen- 
eral. The  contest  between  tradition  and  philosophy 
affected  every  mind.  Literature  was  widely  culti- 
vated; each  of  its  departments  found  devotees.  The 
European  languages  were  studied,  and  connections 
established  between  the  literatures  of  the  nations. 
Hardly  a  spiritual  current  runs  through  the  middle 
ages  without,  in  some  way,  affecting  Jewish  culture. 
It  is  the  irony  of  history  that  puts  among  the  forty 
proscribers  of  the  Talmud  assembled  at  Paris  in  the 
thirteenth  century  the  •  Dominican  Albertus  Mag- 
nus, who,  in  his  successful  efforts  to  divert  scholas- 
tic philosophy  into  new  channels,  depended  entirely 
upon  the  writings  and  translations  of  the  very  Jews 
he  was  helping  to  persecute.  Schoolmen  were  too 
little  conversant  with  Greek  to  read  Aristotle  in  the 
original,  and  so  had  to  content  themselves  with  ac- 
cepting the  Judseo-Arabic  construction  put  upon 
the  Greek  sage's  teachings. 

Besides  acting  as  intermediaries,  Jews  made  origi- 
nal contributions  to  scholastic  philosophy.  For  in- 
stance, Maimonides,  the  first  to  reconcile  Aristotle's 
teachings  with  biblical  theology,  was  the  originator 
of  the  method  adopted  by  schoolmen  in  the  case  of 
Aristotelian  principles  at  variance  with  their  dog- 
mas. Frederick  II.,  the  liberal  emperor,  employed 
Jewish  scholars  and  translators  at  his  court;  among 
them  Jacob  ben  Abba-Mari  ben  Anatoli,  to  whom 
an  annuity  was  paid  for  translating  Aristotelian 
works,  Michael  Scotus,  the  imperial  astrologer, 


86     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

was  his  intimate  friend.  His  contemporaries  were 
chiefly  popular  philosophers  or  mystics,  excepting 
only  the  prominent  Provengal  Jacob  ben  Machir,  or 
Profatius  Judseus,  as  he  was  called,  a  member  of  the 
Tibbon  family  of  translators.  His  observations  on 
the  inclination  of  the  earth's  axis  were  used  later  by 
.Copernicus  as  the  basis  of  further  investigations. 
He  was  a  famous  teacher  at  the  Montpellier  acad- 
emy, which  reminds  me  to  mention  that  Jews  were 
prominently  identified  with  the  founding  and  the 
success  of  the  medical  schools  at  Montpellier  and 
Salerno,  they,  indeed,  being  almost  the  only  physi- 
cians in  all  parts  of  the  known  world.  Salerno,  in 
turn,  suggests  Italy,  where  at  that  period  transla- 
tions were  made  from  Latin  into  Hebrew.  Hillel 
ben  Samuel,  for  instance,  the  same  who  carried  on 
a  lively  philosophic  correspondence  with  another 
distinguished  Jew,  Maestro  Isaac  Gayo,  the  pope's 
physician,  translated  some  of  Thomas  Aquinas's 
writings,  Bruno  di  Lungoburgo's  book  on  surgery, 
and  various  other  works,  from  Latin  into  Hebrew. 
These  successors  of  the  great  intellects  of  the 
golden  age  of  neo-Hebraic  literature,  thoroughly 
conversant  with  Arabic  literature,  busied  themselves 
with  rendering  accessible  to  literary  Europe  the 
treasury  of  Indian  and  Greek  fables.  Their  trans- 
lations and  compilations  have  peculiar  value  in  the 
history  of  literary  development.  During  the  middle 
ages,  when  the  memory  of  ancient  literature  had 
perished,  they  were  the  means  of  preserving  the 
romances,  fairy  tales,  and  fables  that  have  descended, 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION      8/ 

by  way  of  Spain  and  Arabia,  from  classical  antiquity 
and  the  many-hued  Oriental  world  to  our  modern 
literatures.  Between  the  eleventh  and  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  foundations  were  laid  for  our  narrative 
literature,  demonstrating  the  importance  of  delight 
in  fable  lore,  stories  of  travel,  and  all  sorts  of  narra- 
tives, for  to  it  we  owe  the  creation  of  new  and  the 
transformation  of  old,  literary  forms. 

In  Germany  at  that  time,  a  Jewish  minnesinger 
and  strolling  minstrel,  Susskind  von  Trimberg,  went 
up  and  down  the  land,  from  castle  to  castle,  with  the 
poets'  guild;  while  Santob  di  Carrion,  a  Jewish 
troubadour,  ventured  to  impart  counsel  and  moral 
lessons  to  the  Castilian  king  Don  Pedro  before  his 
assembled  people.  A  century  later,  another  Jew, 
Samson  Pnie,  of  Strasburg,  lent  his  assistance  to  the 
two  German  poets  at  work  upon  the  continuation  of 
Parzival.  The  historians  of  German  literature  have 
not  laid  sufficient  stress  upon  the  share  of  the  Jews, 
heavily  oppressed  and  persecuted  though  they  were, 
in  the  creation  of  national  epics  and  romances  of 
chivalry  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth  century. 
German  Jews,  being  mare  than  is  generally  recog- 
nized diligent  readers  of  the  poets,  were  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  drift  of  mediaeval  poetry,  and  to 
this  familiarity  a  new  department  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture owed  its  rise  and  development.  It  is  said  that 
a  Hebrew  version  of  the  Arthurian  cycle  was  made 
as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  period  we  run  across  epic  poems  on  Bible  char- 
acters, composed  in  the  Nibclungen  metre,  in  imita- 
tion of  old  German  legend  lore  and  national  poetry. 


88     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

If  German  Jews  found  heart  for  literary  interests, 
it  may  be  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  Span- 
ish and  Provencal  Jews  participated  in  the  advance- 
ment of  their  respective  national  literatures  and  in 
Troubadour  poetry.  In  these  countries,  too,  the 
new  taste  for  popular  literature,  especially  in  the 
form  of  fables,  was  made  to  serve  moral  ends.  A 
Jew,  Berachya  ben  Natronai,  was  the  precursor  of 
Marie  de  France,  the  famous  French  fabulist,  and 
La  Fontaine  and  Lessing  are  indebted  to  him  for 
some  of  their  material.  As  in  the  case  of  Aristote- 
lian philosophy  and  of  Greek  and  Arabic  medical 
science,  Jews  assumed  the  role  of  mediators  in  the 
transmission  of  fables.  Indian  fables  reached  their 
Arabic  guise  either  directly  or  by  way  of  Persian  and 
Greek;  thence  they  passed  into  Hebrew  and  Latin 
translations,  and  through  these  last  forms  became 
the  property  of  the  European  languages.  For  in- 
stance, the  Hebrew  translation  of  the  old  Sanskrit 
fox  fables  was  the  one  of  greatest  service  in  literary 
evolution.  The  translator  of  the  fox  fables  is  cred- 
ited also  with  the  translation  of  the  romance  of  "  The 
Seven  Wise  Masters,"  under  the  title  Mishle  Sanda- 
bar.  These  two  works  gave  the  impetus  to  a  great 
series  in  Occidental  literature,  and  it  seems  alto- 
gether probable  that  Europe's  first  acquaintance 
with  them  dates  from  their  Hebrew  translation. 

In  Arabic  poetry,  too,  many  a  Jew  deservedly  at- 
tained to  celebrity.  Abraham  ibn  Sahl  won  such 
renown  that  the  Arabs,  notorious  for  parsimony, 
gave  ten  gold  pieces  for  one  of  his  songs.  Other 


THE    JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION      89 

poets  have  come  down  to  us  by  name,  and  Joseph 
Ezobi,  whom  Reuchlin  calls  JudcBorum  poeta  dul- 
cissimus,  went  so  far  as  to  extol  Arabic  beyond 
Hebrew  poetry.  He  was  the  first  to  pronounce 
the  dictum  famous  in  Buffon's  repetition:  "The 
style  is  the  man  himself."  Provence,  the  land  of 
song,  produced  Kalonymos  ben  Kalonymos  (Maes- 
tro Calo),  known  to  his  brethren  in  faith  not  only  as 
a  poet,  but  also  as  a  scholar,  whose  Hebrew  trans- 
lations from  the  Arabic  are  of  most  important  works 
on  philosophy,  medicine,  and  mathematics.  As 
Anatoli  had  worked  under  Emperor  Frederick  II., 
so  Kalonymos  was  attached  to  Robert  of  Naples, 
patron  of  Jewish  scholars.  At  the  same  time  with 
the  Spanish  and  the  German  minstrel,  there  flour- 
ished in  Rome  Immanuel  ben  Solomon,  the  friend 
of  Dante,  upon  whose  death  he  wrote  an  Italian 
sonnet,  and  whose  Divina  Cominedia  inspired  a 
part  of  his  poetical  works  also  describing  a  visit  to 
paradise  and  hell. 

With  the  assiduous  cultivation  of  romantic  poetry, 
which  was  gradually  usurping  the  place  of  moral 
romances  and  novels,  grew  the  importance  of  Ori- 
ental legends  and  traditions,  so  pregnant  with  liter- 
ary suggestions.  This  is  attested  by  the  use  made 
of  the  Hebrew  translation  of  Indian  fables  men- 
tioned before,  and  of  the  famous  collection  of  tales, 
the  Disciplina  clericalis  by  the  baptized  Jew  Petrus 
Alphonsus.  The  Jews  naturally  introduced  many 
of  their  own  peculiar  traditions,  and  thus  can  be 
explained  the  presence  of  tales  from  the  Talmud 
and  the  Midrash  in  our  modern  fairy  tale  books. 


gO     THE    JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

It  is  necessary  to  note  again  that  the  Jews  in  turn 
submitted  to  the  influence  of  foreign  literatures.  Im- 
manuel  Romi,  for  example,  at  his  best,  is  an  expo- 
nent of  Provencal  versification  and  scholastic  phil- 
osophy, while  his  lapses  testify  to  the  self-compla- 
cency and  levity  characteristic  of  the  times.  Yehu- 
da Romano,  one  of  his  contemporaries,  is  said  to 
have  been  teacher  to  the  king  of  Naples.  He  was 
the  first  Jew  to  attain  to  a  critical  appreciation  of  the 
vagaries  of  scholasticism,  but  his  claim  to  mention 
rests  upon  his  translations  from  the  Latin. 

As  Jews  assisted  at  the  birth  of  Arabic,  French, 
and  German,  so  they  have  a  share  in  the  beginnings 
of  Spanish,  literature.  Jews  must  be  credited  with 
the  first  "  Chronicle  of  the  Cid,"  with  the  romance, 
Comte  Lyomiais,  Palanus,  with  the  first  collection 
of  tales,  the  first  chess  poems,  and  the  first  trouba- 
dour songs.  Again,  the  oldest  collection  of  the  last 
into  a  cancionera  was  made  by  the  Jew  Juan  Al- 
fonso de  Bsena. 

Even  distant  Persia  has  proofs  to  show  of  Jewish 
ability  and  energy  in  those  days.  One  Jew  com- 
posed an  epic  on  a  biblical  subject  in  the  Persian 
language,  another  translated  the  Psalms  into  the 
vernacular. 

The  most  prominent  Jewish  exponent  of  philoso- 
phy in  this  age  of  strenuous  interest  in  metaphysical 
speculations  and  contests  was  Levi  ben  Gerson 
(Leon  di  Bannolas),  theologian,  scientist,  physician, 
and  astronomer.  One  of  his  ancestors,  Gerson  ben 
Solomon,  had  written  a  work  typical  of  the  state  of 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION     9! 

the  natural  sciences  in  his  day.  Levi  ben  Gerson's 
chief  work  became  famous  not  among  Jews  alone. 
It  was  referred  to  in  words  of  praise  by  Pico  della 
Mirandola,  Reuchlin,  Kepler,  and  other  Christian 
thinkers.  He  was  the  inventor  of  an  astronomical 
instrument,  a  description  of  which  was  translated 
into  Latin  at  the  express  command  of  Pope  Cle- 
ment VI.,  and  carefully  studied  by  Kepler.  Be- 
sides, Levi  ben  Gerson  was  the  author  of  an  arith- 
metical work.  In  those  days,  in  fact  up  to  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  there  was  but  a  faint  dividing  line 
between  astronomy  and  mathematics,  as  between 
medicine  and  natural  history.  John  of  Seville  was 
a  notable  mathematician,  the  compiler  of  a  practical 
arithmetic,  the  first  to  make  mention  of  decimal 
fractions,  which  possibly  may  have  been  his  inven- 
tion, and  in  the  Zohar,  the  text-book  of  mediaeval 
Jewish  mysticism,  which  appeared  centuries  before 
Copernicus's  time,  the  cause  of  the  succession  of 
day  and  night  is  stated  to  be  the  earth's  revolution 
on  its  axis. 

In  this  great  translation  period  scarcely  a  single 
branch  of  human  science  escaped  the  mental  avidity 
of  Jews.  They  found  worthy  of  translation  such 
essays  as  "  Rules  for  the  Shoeing  and  Care  of 
Horses  in  Royal  Stables  "  and  "  The  Art  of  Carving 
and  Serving  at  Princely  Boards."  Translations  of 
works  on  scholasticism  now  took  rank  beside  those 
from  Greek  and  Arabic  philosophers,  and  to  trans- 
lations from  the  Arabic  into  Hebrew  were  added 
translations  from  and  into  Latin,  or  even  into  the 


92     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF   CIVILIZATION 

vernacular  idiom  wherever  literary  forms  had  de- 
veloped. The  bold  assertion  can  be  made  good 
that  not  a  single  prominent  work  of  ancient  science 
was  left  untranslated.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  hard 
to  speculate  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of  these 
treasures  of  antiquity  without  Jewish  intermediation. 
Doubtless  an  important  factor  in  the  work  was  the 
encouragement  given  Jewish  scholars  by  enlight- 
ened rulers,  such  as  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  Charles 
and  Robert  of  Anjou,  Jayme  I.  of  Aragon,  and  Al- 
fonso X.  of  Castile,  and  by  popes,  and  private  pa- 
trons of  learning.  Mention  has  been  made  of  Jewish 
contributions  to  the  work  of  the  medical  schools  of 
Montpellier  and  Salerno.  Under  Jayme  I.  Christian 
and  Jewish  savants  of  Barcelona  worked  together 
harmoniously  to  promote  the  cause  of  civilization 
and  culture  in  their  native  land.  The  first  to  use  the 
Catalan  dialect  for  literary  purposes  was  the  Jew 
Yehuda  ben  Astruc,  and  under  Alfonso  (X.)  the 
Wise,  Jews  again  attained  to  prominence  in  the 
king's  favorite  science  of  astronomy.  The  Alfonsine 
Tables  were  chiefly  the  work  of  Isaac  ibn  Sid,  a  To- 
ledo chazan  (precentor).  In  general,  the  results 
reached  by  Jewish  scholarship  at  Alfonso's  court 
were  of  the  utmost  importance,  having  been  largely 
instrumental  in  establishing  in  the  age  of  Tycho  de 
Brahe  and  Kepler  the  fundamental  principles  of 
astronomy  and  a  correct  view  of  the  orbits  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  Equal  suggestiveness  character- 
izes Jewish  research  in  mathematics,  a  science  to 
which,  rising  above  the  level  of  intermediaries  and 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION      93 

translators,  Jews  made  original  contributions  of  im- 
portance, the  first  being  Isaac  Israeli's  "  The  Foun- 
dation of  the  Universe."  Basing  his  observations 
on  Maimuni's  and  Abraham  ben  Chiya's  statement 
of  the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  Israeli  showed  that 
the  heavenly  bodies  do  not  seem  to  occupy  the  place 
in  which  they  would  appear  to  an  observer  at  the 
centre  of  the  earth,  and  that  the  two  positions  differ 
by  a  certain  angle,  since  known  as  parallax  in  the 
terminology  of  science.  To  Judah  Hakohen,  a 
scholar  in  correspondence  with  Alfonso  the  Wise,  is 
ascribed  the  arrangement  of  the  stars  in  forty-eight 
constellations,  and  to  another  Jew,  Esthori  Ha- 
farchi,  we  owe  the  first  topographical  description  of 
Palestine,  whither  he  emigrated  when  the  Jews  were 
expelled  from  France  by  Philip  the  Fair. 

Meanwhile  the  condition  of  the  Jews,  viewed  from 
without  and  from  within,  had  become  most  pitiable. 
The  Kabbala  lured  into  her  charmed  circle  the 
strongest  Jewish  minds.  Scientific  aspirations 
seemed  completely  extinguished.  Even  the  study 
of  the  Talmud  was  abandoning  simple,  undistorted 
methods  of  interpretation,  and  espousing  the  hair- 
splitting dialectics  of  the  northern  French  school. 
Synagogue  poetry  was  languishing,  and  general  cul- 
ture found  no  votaries  among  Jews.  Occasionally 
only  the  religious  disputations  between  Jews  and 
Christians  induced  some  few  to  court  acquaintance 
with  secular  branches  of  learning.  In  the  fourteenth 
century  Chasda'i  Crecas  was  the  only  philosopher 
with  an  original  system,  which  in  its  arguments  on 


94     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

free  will  and  the  nature  of  God  anticipated  the  views 
of  one  greater  than  himself,  who,  however,  had  a 
different  purpose  in  view.  That  later  and  greater 
philosopher,  to  whom  the  world  is  indebted  for  the 
evangel  of  modern  life,  was  likewise  a  Jew,  a  de- 
scendant of  Spanish-Jewish  fugitives.  His  name  is 
Baruch  Spinoza. 

However  sad  their  fortunes,  the  literature  of  the 
Jews  never  entirely  eschewed  the  consideration  of 
subjects  of  general  interest.  This  receives  curious 
confirmation  from  the  re-introduction  of  Solomon 
Gabirol's  peculiar  views  into  Jewish  religious  phil- 
osophy, by  way  of  Christian  scholasticism,  as  formu- 
lated especially  by  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  Doctor 
angelicus. 

The  Renaissance  and  the  humanistic  movement 
also  reveal  Jewish  influences  at  work.  The  spirit  of 
liberty  abroad  in  the  earth  passed  through  the  halls 
of  Israel,  clearing  the  path  thenceforth  to  be  trodden 
by  men.  Again  the  learned  were  compelled  to  en- 
gage the  good  offices  of  the  Jews,  the  custodians  of 
biblical  antiquity.  The  invention  of  the  printing 
press  acted  as  a  wonderful  stimulus  to  the  develop- 
ment of  Jewish  literature.  The  first  products  of  the 
new  machine  were  Hebrew  works  issued  in  Italy  and 
Spain.  Among  the  promoters  of  the  Renaissance. 
and  one  of  the  most  thorough  students  of  religio- 
philosophical  systems,  was  Elias  del  Medigo,  the 
friend  of  Pico  della  Mirandola,  and  the  umpire 
chosen  by  the  quarrelling  factions  in  the  University 
of  Padua.  John  Reuchlin,  chief  of  the  humanists, 


THE   JEW    IN   THE    HISTORY   OF    CIVILIZATION     95 

was  taught  Hebrew  by  Obadiah  Sforno,  a  savant  of 
profound  scholarship,  who  dedicated  his  "  Commen- 
tary on  Ecclesiastes  "  to  Henry  II.  of  France.  Abra- 
ham de  Balmes  was  a  teacher  at  the  universities  of 
Padua  and  Salerno,  and  physician  in  ordinary  to 
Cardinal  Dominico  Grimani.  The  Kabbala  was 
made  accessible  to  the  heroes  of  the  Renaissance  by 
Jochanan  Alemanno,  of  Mantua,  and  there  is  pathos 
in  the  urgency  with  which  Reuchlin  entreats  Jacob 
Margoles,  rabbi  of  Nuremberg,  to  send  him  Kabba- 
listic  writings  in  addition  to  those  in  his  possession. 
Reuchlin's  good  offices  to  .the  Jews — his  defense  of 
them  against  the  attacks  of  obscurantists — are  a 
matter  of  general  knowledge.  Among  the  teachers 
of  the  humanists  who  revealed  to  them  the  treasures 
of  biblical  literature  the  most  prominent  was  Elias 
Levita,  the  introducer,  through  his  disciples  Sebas- 
tian Minister  and  Paul  Fagius,  of  Hebrew  studies 
into  Germany.  He  may  be  accounted  a  true  hu- 
manist, a  genuine  exponent  of  the  Renaissance.  His 
Jewish  coadjutors  were  Judah  Abrabanel  (Leo  He- 
brseus),  whose  chief  work  was  Dialoghi  di  Amore, 
an  exposition  of  the  Neoplatonism  then  current  in 
Italy;  Jacob  Mantino,  physician  to  Pope  Paul  III.; 
Bonet  di  Lattes,  known  as  a  writer  on  astronomical 
subjects,  and  the  inventor  of  an  astronomical  instru- 
ment; and  a  number  of  others. 

While  in  Italy  the  Spanish-Jewish  exiles  fell  into 
line  in  the  Renaissance  movement,  the  large  num- 
bers of  them  that  sought  refuge  in  Portugal  turned 
their  attention  chiefly  to  astronomical  research  and 


96     THE   JEW    IN   THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION 

to  voyages  of  discovery  and  adventure,  the  national 
enterprises  of  their  protectors.  Joao  II.  employed 
Jews  in  investigations  tending  to  make  reasonably 
safe  the  voyages,  on  trackless  seas,  under  unknown 
skies,  for  the  discovery  of  long  and  ardently  sought 
passages  to  distant  lands.  In  his  commission 
charged  with  the  construction  of  an  instrument  to 
indicate  accurately  the  course  of  a  vessel,  the  German 
knight  Martin  Behaim  was  assisted  by  Jews — 
astronomers,  metaphysicians,  and  physicians — chief 
among  them  Joseph  Vecinho,  distinguished  for  his 
part  in  the  designing  of  the  artificial  globe,  and 
Pedro  di  Carvallho,  navigator,  whose  claim  to  praise 
rests  upon  his  improvement  of  Leib's  Astrologiiim, 
and  to  censure,  upon  his  abetment  of  the  king  when 
he  refused  the  request  of  the  bold  Genoese  Columbus 
to  fit  out  a  squadron  for  the  discovery  of  wholly 
unknown  lands.  But  when  Columbus's  plans  found 
long  deferred  realization  in  Spain,  a  Jewish  youth, 
Luis  de  Torres,  embarked  among  the  ninety  adven- 
turers who  accompanied  him.  Vasco  da  Gama 
likewise  was  aided  in  his  search  for  a  waterway  to 
the  Indies  by  a  Jew,  the  pilot  Caspar,  the  same  who 
later  set  down  in  writing  the  scientific  results  of  the 
voyage,  and  two  Jews  were  despatched  to  explore 
the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  island  of  Ormus 
in  the  Persian  Gulf.  Again,  Vasco  da  Gama's  plans 
were  in  part  made  with  the  valuable  assistance  of  a 
Jew,  a  profound  scholar,  Abraham  Zacuto,  sometime 
professor  of  astronomy  at  the  University  of  Sala- 
manca, and  after  the  banishment  of  Jews  from  Spain, 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF    CIVILIZATION     97 

astronomer  and  chronographer  to  Manuel  the  Great, 
of  Portugal.  It  was  he  that  advised  the  king  to 
send  out  Da  Gama's  expedition,  and  from  the  first 
the  explorer  was  supported  by  his  counsel  and  scien- 
tific knowledge. 

Meritorious  achievements,  all  of  them,  but  they 
did  not  shield  the  Jews  against  impending  banish- 
ment. The  exiles  found  asylums  in  Italy  and  Hol- 
land, and  in  each  country  they  at  once  projected 
themselves  into  the  predominant  intellectual  move- 
ment. A  physician,  Abraham  Portaleone,  distin- 
guished himself  on  the  field  of  antiquarian  research ; 
another,  David  d'Ascoli,  wrote  a  defense  of  Jews; 
and  a  third,  David  de  Pomis,  a  defense  of  Jewish 
physicians.  The  most  famous  was  Amatus  Lusit- 
anus,  one  of  whose  important  discoveries  is  said  to 
have  brought  him  close  up  to  that  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood.  Before  the  banishment  of  Jews  from 
Spain  took  effect,  Antonio  di  Moro,  a  Jewish  peddler 
of  Cordova,  flourished  as  the  last  of  Spanish  trou- 
badours, and  Rodrigo  da  Cota,  a  neo-Christian  of 
Seville,  as  the  first  of  Spanish  dramatists,  the  sup- 
posed author  of  Celestina,  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated of  old  Spanish  dramatic  compositions. 

The  proscribed,  in  the  guise  of  Marranos,  and  un- 
der the  hospitable  shelter  of  their  new  homes,  could 
not  be  banished  from  literary  Spain,  even  in  its 
newest  departures.  Indeed,  for  a  long  time  Spanish 
and  Italian  literatures  were  brought  into  contact 
with  each  other  only  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Jews.  Not  quite  half  a  century  after  the  expulsion 


98     THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY    OF   CIVILIZATION 

of  Jews  from  Portugal  and  their  settlement  in  Italy, 
a  Jew,  Solomon  Usque,  made  a  Spanish  translation 
of  Petrarch  (1567),  dedicated  to  Alessandro  Farnese, 
duke  of  Parma,  and  wrote  Italian  odes,  dedicated  to 
Cardinal  Borromeo. 

At  the  zenith  of  the  Renaissance,  Jews  won  re- 
nown as  Italian  poets,  and  did  valiant  work  as  trans- 
lators from  Latin  into  Hebrew  and  Italian.  In  the 
later  days  of  the  movement,  in  the  Reformation  pe- 
riod, illustrious  Christian  scholars  studied  Hebrew 
under  Jewish  tutorship,  and  gave  it  a  place  on  the 
curriculum  of  the  universities.  Luther  himself  sub- 
mitted to  rabbinical  guidance  in  his  biblical  studies. 

In  great  numbers  the  Spanish  exiles  turned  to 
Turkey,  where  numerous  new  communities  rapidly 
arose.  There,  too,  in  Constantinople  and  elsewhere, 
Jews,  like  Elias  Mizrachi  and  Elias  Kapsali,  were  the 
first  to  pursue  scientific  research. 

We  have  now  reached  the  days  of  deepest  misery 
for  Judaism.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  unrelenting  oppres- 
sion, Jews  win  places  of  esteem  as  diplomats,  custo- 
dians and  advocates  of  important  interests  at  royal 
courts.  From  the  earliest  period  of  their  history, 
Jews  manifested  special  talent  for  the  arts  of  diplo- 
macy. In  the  Arabic-Spanish  period  they  exercised 
great  political  influence  upon  Mohammedan  caliphs. 
The  Fatimide  and  Omayyad  dynasties  employed 
Jewish  representatives  and  ministers,  Samuel  ibn 
Nagdela,  for  instance,  being  grand  vizir  of  the  caliph 
of  Granada.  Christian  sovereigns  also  valued  their 
services :  as  is  well  known,  Charlemagne  sent  a  Jew- 


THE   JEW    IN    THE    HISTORY   OF    CIVILIZATION     99 

ish  ambassador  to  Haroun  al  Rashid;  Pope  Alex- 
ander III.  appointed  Yechiel  ben  Abraham  as  min- 
ister of  finance;  and  so  late  as  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury the  wise  statesman  Isaac  Abrabanel  was  min- 
ister to  Alfonso  V.,  of  Portugal,  and,  wonderful  to 
relate,  for  eight  years  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  of 
Spain.  At  this  time  Jewish  literature  was  blessed 
with  a  patron  in  the  person  of  Joseph  Nasi,  duke  of 
Naxos,  whom,  it  is  said,  Sultan  Selim  II.  wished  to 
crown  king  of  Cyprus.  His  rival  was  Solomon  Ash- 
kenazi,  Turkish  ambassador  to  the  Venetian  repub- 
lic, who  exercised  decisive  influence  upon  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Polish  king.  And  this  is  not  the  end  of 
the  roll  of  Jewish  diplomats  and  ministers. 

Unfortunately,  the  Kabbala,  whose  spell  was  cast 
about  even  the  most  vigorous  of  Jewish  minds,  was 
the  leading  intellectual  current  of  those  sad  days,  the 
prevailing  misery  but  serving  to  render  her  allure- 
ments more  fascinating.  But  in  the  hands  of  such 
men  as  Abraham  Herrera,  who  influenced  Benedict 
Spinoza,  even  Kabbalistic  studies  were  informed 
with  a  scientific  spirit,  and  brought  into  connection 
with  Neoplatonic  philosophy. 

Mention  of  Spinoza  suggests  Holland  where  Jews 
were  kindly  received,  and  shortly  after  their  arrival 
they  interested  themselves  in  the  philosophical  pur- 
suits in  vogue.  The  best  index  to  their  position  in 
Holland  is  furnished  by  Manasseh  ben  Israel's 
prominent  role  in  the  politics  and  the  literary  ven- 
tures of  Amsterdam,  and  by  his  negotiations  with 
Oliver  Cromwell.  We  may  pardon  the  pride  which 


IOO     THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

made  him  say,  "  I  have  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the 
wisest  and  the  best  of  Europe."  Uriel  Acosta  and 
Baruch  Spinoza,  though  children  of  the  Amsterdam 
Judengasse,  were  ardent  patriots. 

The  last  great  Spanish  poet  was  Antonio  Enrique 
de  Gomez,  the  Jewish  Calderon,  burnt  in  effigy  at 
Seville;  while  the  last  Portuguese  poet  of  note  was 
Antonio  Jose  de  Silva,  who  perished  at  the  stake  for 
his  faith,  leaving  his  dramas  as  a  precious  posses- 
sion to  Portuguese  literature. 

Even  in  the  dreariest  days  of  decadence,  when  the 
study  of  the  Talmud  seemed  to  engross  their  atten- 
tion, Jews  prosecuted  scientific  inquiries,  as  witness 
Moses  Isserles's  translation  of  Theorica,  an  astro- 
nomical treatise  by  Peurbach,  the  Vienna  humanist. 

With  the  migration  of  Jews  eastward,  Juden- 
deutsch,  a  Jewish-German  dialect,  with  its  literature, 
was  introduced  into  Slavic  countries.  It  is  a  fact  not 
generally  known  that  this  jargon  is  the  depository 
of  certain  Middle  High  German  expressions  and  ele- 
ments no  longer  used  in  the  modern  German,  and 
that  philologists  are  forced  to  resort  to  the  study  of 
the  Polish-Jewish  patois  to  reconstruct  the  old 
idiom.  In  1523,  the  year  of  Luther's  Pentateuch 
translation,  a  Jewish-German  Bible  dictionary  was 
published  at  Cracow,  and  in  1540  appeared  the  first 
Jewish-German  translation  of  the  Pentateuch.  The 
Germans  strongly  influenced  the  popular  literature 
of  the  Jews.  The  two  nationalities  seized  the 
same  subjects,  often  imitating,  the  same  models,  or 
using  the  same  translations.  The  German  "Till 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION      IOI 

Eulenspiegel "  was  printed  in  1 500,  the  Jewish-Ger- 
man in  1600.  Besides  incorporating  German  folk- 
lore, Jewish-German  writings  borrowed  from  Ger- 
man romances,  assimilated  foreign  literatures,  did 
not  neglect  the  traditions  of  the  Jews  themselves, 
and  embraced  even  folk-songs,  some  of  which  have 
perpetuated  themselves  until  the  modern  era. 

Mention  of  the  well-known  fact  that  the  Hebrew 
studies  prosecuted  by  Christians  in  the  eighteenth 
century  were  carried  on  under  Jewish  influence 
brings  us  to  the  threshold  of  the  modern  era,  the 
period  of  the  Jewish  Renaissance.  Here  we  are  on 
well-worn  ground.  Since  Jews  have  been  permitted 
to  enter  at  will  upon  the  multifarious  pursuits  grow- 
ing out  of  modern  culture,  their  importance  as  fac- 
tors of  civilization  is  universally  acknowledged,  and 
it  would  be  wearisome,  and  would  far  transgress  the 
limits  of  a  lecture,  to  enumerate  their  achievements. 

In  trying  to  show  what  share  the  Jew  has  had  in 
the  world's  civilization,  I  have  naturally  concerned 
myself  chiefly  with  literature,  for  literature  is  the 
mirror  of  culture.  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however, 
to  suppose  that  the  Jew  has  been  inactive  in  other 
spheres.  His  contributions,  for  instance,  to  the 
modern  development  of  international  commerce, 
cannot  be  overlooked.  Commerce  in  its  modern  ex- 
tension was  the  creation  of  the  mercantile  republics 
of  mediaeval  Italy — Venice,  Florence,  Genoa,  and 
Pisa — and  in  them  Jews  determined  and  regulated 
its  course.  When  Ravenna  contemplated  a  union 
with  Venice,  and  formulated  the  conditions  for  the 


IO2     THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

alliance,  one  of  them  was  the  demand  that  rich  Jews 
be  sent  thither  to  open  a  bank  for  the  relief  of  dis- 
tress. Jews  were  the  first  to  obtain  the  privilege  of 
establishing  banks  in  the  Italian  cities,  and  the  first 
to  discover  the  advantages  of  a  system  of  checks  and 
bills  of  exchange,  of  unique  value  in  the  develop- 
ment of  modern  commerce. 

Even  in  art,  a  sphere  from  which  their  rigorous 
laws  might  seem  to  have  the  effect  of  banishing 
them,  they  were  not  wholly  inactive.  They  always 
numbered  among  themselves  handicraftsmen.  In 
Venice,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  we  find  celebrated 
Jewish  wood  engravers.  Jacob  Weil's  rules  for 
slaughtering  were  published  with  vignettes  by  Hans 
Holbein,  and  one  of  Manasseh  ben  Israel's  works 
was  adorned  with  a  frontispiece  by  Rembrandt.  In 
our  own  generation  Jews  have  won  fame  as  painters 
and  sculptors,  while  music  has  been  their  staunch 
companion,  deserting  them  not  even  in  the  darkest 
days  of  the  Ghetto. 

These  certainly  are  abundant  proofs  that  the  Jew 
has  a  share  in  all  the  phases  and  stages  of  culture, 
from  its  first  germs  unto  its  latest  complex  develop- 
ment— a  consoling,  elevating  reflection.  A  learned 
historian  of  literature,  a  Christian,  in  discussing  this 
subject,  was  prompted  to  say:  "  Our  first  knowledge 
of  philosophy,  botany,  astronomy,  and  cosmography, 
as  well  as  the  grammar  of  the  holy  language  and  the 
results  of  biblical  study,  we  owe  primarily  to  Jews.'' 
Another  historian,  also  a  Christian,  closes  a  review 
of  Jewish  national  traits  with  the  words :  "  Looking 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION     IO3 

back  over  the  course  of  history,  we  find  that  in  the 
gloom,  bareness,,  and  intellectual  sloth  of  the  middle 
ages,  Jews  maintained  a  rational  system  of  agricul- 
ture, and  built  up  international  commerce,  upon 
which  rests  the  well-being  of  the  nations." 

Truly,  there  are  reasons  for  pride  on  our  part,  but 
no  less  do  great  obligations  devolve  upon  us.  I 
cannot  refrain  from  exhortation.  In  justice  we 
should  confess  that  Jews  drew  their  love  of  learning 
and  ability  to  advance  the  work  of  civilization  from 
Jewish  writings.  Furthermore,  it  is  a  fact  that  these 
Jewish  writings  no  longer  excite  the  interest,  or  claim 
the  devotion  of  Jews.  I  maintain  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  members  of  our  Order  to  take  this  neglected, 
lightly  esteemed  literature  under  their  protection, 
and  secure  for  it  the  appreciation  and  encourage- 
ment that  are  the  offspring  of  knowledge. 

Modern  Judaism  presents  a  curious  spectacle. 
The  tiniest  of  national  groups  in  Eastern  Europe, 
conceiving  the  idea  of  establishing  its  independence, 
proceeds  forthwith  to  create  a  literature,  if  need  be, 
inventing  and  forging.  Judaism  possesses  count- 
less treasures  of  inestimable  worth,  amassed  by  re- 
search and  experience  in  the  course  of  thousands  of 
years,  and  her  latter-day  children  brush  them  aside 
with  indifference,  even  with  scorn,  leaving  it  to  the 
sons  of  the  stranger,  yea,  their  adversaries,  to  gather 
and  cherish  them. 

When  Goethe  in  his  old  age  conceived  and  out- 
lined a  scheme  of  universal  literature,  the  first  place 
was  assigned  to  Jewish  literature.  In  his  pantheon 


IO4     THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

of  the  world's  poetry,  the  first  tone  uttered  was  to  be 
that  of  "  David's  royal  song  and  harp."  But,  in 
general,  Jewish  literature  is  still  looked  upon  as  the 
Cinderella  of  the  world's  literatures.  Surely,  the 
day  will  come  when  justice  will  be  done,  Cinderella's 
claim  be  acknowledged  equal  to  that  of  her  royal 
sisters,  and  together  they  will  enter  the  spacious  halls 
of  the  magnificent  palace  of  literature. 

Among  the  prayers  prescribed  for  the  Day  of 
Atonement  is  one  of  subordinate  importance  which 
affects  me  most  solemnly.  When  the  shadows  of 
evening  lengthen,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  wanes, 
the  Jew  reads  the  Nellah  service  with  fervor,  as 
though  he  would  "  burst  open  the  portals  of  heaven 
with  his  tears,''  and  the  inmost  depths  of  my  nature 
are  stirred  with  melancholy  pride  by  the  prayer  of  the 
pious  Jew.  He  supplicates  not  for  his  house  and  his 
family,  not  for  Zion  dismantled,  not  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Temple,  not  for  the  advent  of  the  Messiah, 
not  for  respite  from  suffering.  All  his  sighs  and 
hopes,  all  his  yearning  and  aspiration,  are  concen- 
trated in  the  one  thought:  "Our  splendor  and  our 
glory  have  departed,  our  treasures  have  been 
snatched  from  us;  there  remains  nothing  to  us  but 
this  Law  alone."  If  this  is  true;  if  naught  else  is 
left  of  our  former  state ;  if  this  Law,  this  science,  this 
literature,  are  our  sole  treasure  and  best  inheritance, 
then  let  us  cherish  and  cultivate  them  so  as  to  have 
a  legacy  to  bequeath  to  our  children  to  stand  them 
in  good  stead  against  the  coming  of  the  Neilah  of 
humanity,  the  day  when  brethren  will  "dwell  to- 
gether in  unity." 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION     10$ 

Perhaps  that  day  is  not  far  distant.  Methinks  I 
hear  the  rustling  of  a  new  springtide  of  humanity; 
methinks  I  discern  the  morning  flush  of  new  world- 
stirring  ideas,  and  before  my  mind's  eye  rises  a 
bridge,  over  which  pass  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
Israel  in  their  midst,  holding  aloft  his  ensign  with 
the  inscription,  "The  Lord  is  my  banner!" — the  one 
which  he  bore  on  every  battlefield  of  thought,  and 
which  was  never  suffered  to  fall  into  the  enemy's 
hand.  It  is  a  mighty  procession  moving  onward 
and  upward  to  a  glorious  goal:  "Humanity,  Lib- 
erty, Love!" 


WOMEN  IN  JEWISH  LITERATURE 

Among  the  songs  of  the  Bible  there  are  two,  be- 
longing to  the  oldest  monuments  of  poetry,  which 
have  preserved  the  power  to  inspire  and  elevate  as 
when  they  were  first  uttered :  the  hymn  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving  sung  by  Moses  and  his  sister  Miriam, 
and  the  impassioned  song  of  Deborah,  the  heroine 
in  Israel. 

Miriam  and  Deborah  are  the  first  Israelitish 
women  whose  melody  thrilled  and  even  now  thrills 
us — Miriam,  the  inspired  prophetess,  pouring  forth 
her  people's  joy  and  sorrow,  and  Deborah,  Esheth 
Lapidoth,  the  Bible  calls  her,  "the  woman  of  the 
flaming  heart,"  an  old  writer  ingeniously  interprets 
the  Scriptural  name.  They  are  the  chosen  exem- 
plars of  all  women  who,  stepping  across  the  narrow 
confines  of  home,  have  lifted  up  a  voice,  or  wielded 
a  pen,  for  Israel.  The  time  is  not  yet  when  woman 
in  literature  can  be  discussed  without  an  introduc- 
tory justification.  The  prejudice  is  still  deep-rooted 
which  insists  that  'domestic  activity  is  woman's  only 
legitimate  career,  that  to  enter  the  literary  arena  is 
unwomanly,  that  inspired  songs  may  drop  only  from 
male  lips.  Woman's  heart  should,  indeed,  be  the 
abode  of  the  angels  of  gentleness,  modesty,  kindness, 
and  patience.  But  no  contradiction  is  involved  in 

106 


WOMEN   IN  JEWISH   LITERATURE  IO/ 

the  belief  that  her  mind  is  endowed  with  force  and 
ability  on  occasion  to  grasp  the  spokes  of  fortune's 
wheel,  or  produce  works  which  need  not  shrink 
from  public  criticism.  Deborah  herself  felt  that  it 
would  have  better  become  a  man  to  fulfil  the  mission 
with  which  she  was  charged — that  a  cozy  home  had 
been  a  more  seemly  place  for  her  than  the  camp  up- 
on Mount  Tabor.  She  says :  "  Desolate  were  the 
open  towns  in  Israel,  they  were  desolate.  .  .  .  Was 
there  a  shield  seen  or  a  spear  among  forty  thousand 
in  Israel?  .  .  .  I — unto  the  Lord  will  I  sing."  Not 
until  the  fields  of  Israel  were  desert,  forsaken  of 
able-bodied  men,  did  the  woman  Deborah  arise  for 
the  glory  of  God.  She  refused  to  pose  as  a  heroine, 
rejected  the  crown  of  victory,  nor  coveted  the  poet's 
laurel,  meet  recognition  of  her  triumphal  song. 
Modestly  she  chose  the  simplest  yet  most  beautiful 
of  names.  She  summoned  the  warriors  to  battle; 
the  word  of  God  was  proclaimed  by  her  lips;  she 
pronounced  judgment,  and  right  prevailed;  her  cour- 
age sustained  her  on  the  battlefield,  and  victory  fol- 
lowed in  her  footsteps — yet  neither  judge,  nor 
poetess,  nor  singer,  nor  prophetess  will  she  call  her- 
self, but  only  Em  beyisrael,  "  a  mother  in  Israel."1 

This  heroine,  this  "mother  in  Israel,"  in  all  the 
wanderings  and  vicissitudes  of  the  Jewish  people, 
was  the  exemplar  of  its  women  and  maidens,  the 
especial  model  of  Israelitish  poetesses  and  writers. 

The  student  of  Jewish  literature  is  like  an  astrono- 
mer. While  the  casual  observer  faintly  discerns 

Judges  v.  7. 


IOS  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

single  stars  dotted  in  the  expanse  of  blue  overhead, 
he  takes  in  the  whole  sweep  of  the  heavens,  readily 
following  the  movements  of  the  stars  of  every  mag- 
nitude. The  history7  of  the  Jewish  race,  its  mere 
preservation  during  the  long  drawn  out  period  of  suf- 
fering— sad  days  of  national  dissolution  and  sombre 
middle  age  centuries — is  a  perplexing  puzzle,  unless 
regarded  with  the  eye  of  faith.  But  that  this  'race, 
cuffed,  crushed,  pursued,  hounded  from  spot  to 
spot,  should  have  given  birth  to  men,  yea,  even 
women  ranking  high  in  the  realm  of  letters,  is 
wholly  inexplicable,  unless  the  explanation  of  the 
unique  phenomenon  is  sought  in  the  wondrous  gift 
of  inspiration  operative  in  Israel  even  after  the  last 
seer  ceased  to  speak. 

Judaism  has  preserved  the  Jews!  Judaism,  that 
is,  the  Law  with  its  development  and  ramifications 
of  a  great  religious  thought,  was  the  sustaining 
power  of  the  Jewish  people  under  its  burden  of 
misery,  suffering,  torture,  and  oppression,  enabling  it 
to  survive  its  tormentors.  The  Jews  were  the  nation 
of  hope.  Like  hope  this  people  is  eternal.  The 
storms  of  fanaticism  and  race  hatred  may  rage  and 
roar,  the  race  cannot  be  destroyed.  Precisely  in 
the  days  of  its  abject  degradation,  when  its  suffering 
was  dire,  how  marvellous  the  conduct  of  this  peo- 
ple! The  conquered  were  greater  than  their  con- 
querors. From  their  spiritual  height  they  looked 
down  compassionately  on  their  victorious  but  ignor- 
ant adversaries,  who,  feeling  the  condescension  of 
the  vi'ctims,  drove  their  irons  deeper.  The  little 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  1OQ 

nation  grew  only  the  stronger,  and  its  religion,  the 
flower  of  hope  and  trust,  developed  the  more  sturdily 
for  its  icy  covering.  Jews  were  mowed  down  by 
fire  and  sword,  but  Judaism  continued  to  live.  From 
the  ashes  of  every  pyre  sprang  the  Jewish  Law  in 
unfading  youth — that  indestructible,  ineradicable 
mentality  and  hope,  which  opponents  are  wont  to 
call  unconquerable  Jewish  defiance. 

The  men  of  this  great  little  race  were  preserved 
by  the  Law,  the  spirit,  and  the  influences  and  effects 
of  this  same  Law  transformed  weak  women  into 
God-inspired  martyrs,  dowered  the  daughters  of  Is- 
rael with  courage  to  sacrifice  life  for  the  glory  of  the 
God-idea  confessed  by  their  ancestors  during  thous- 
ands of  years.  Purity  of  morals,  confiding  domes- 
ticity, were  the  safeguards  against  storm  and  stress. 
The  outside  world  presented  a  hostile  front  to  the 
Jew  of  the  middle  ages.  Every  step  beyond  Ghetto 
precincts  was  beset  with  peril.  So  his  home  became 
his  world,  his  sanctuary,  in  whose  intimate  seclusion 
the  blossom  of  pure  family  love  unfolded.  While 
spiritual  darkness  brooded  over  the  nations,  the 
great  Messianic  God-idea  took  refuge  from  the  icy 
chill  of  the  middle  ages  in  his  humble  rooms,  where 
it  was  cherished  against  the  coming  of  a  glorious 
future. 

"  Every  Jew  has  the  making  of  a  Messiah  in  him," 
says  a  clever  modern  author,1  "  and  every  Jewess  of 
a  mater  dolorosa"  of  which  the  first  part  is  only  an 
epigram,  the  second,  a  truth,  an  historic  fact.  Me- 

1  M.  Hess,  Rom  Tind  Jerusalem,  p.  2. 


IIO  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

diaeval  Judaism  knew  many  "  sorrowful  mothers," 
whose  heroism  passes  our  latter-day  conception. 
Greece  and  Rome  tell  tales  upon  tales  of  womanly 
bravery  under  suffering  and  pain — Jewish  history 
buries  in  silence  the  names  of  its  thousands  of 
woman  and  maiden  martyrs,  joyously  giving  up  life 
in  the  vindication  of  their  faith.  Perhaps,  had  one 
woman  been  too  weak  to  resist,  too  cowardly  to 
court  and  embrace  death,  her  name  might  have  been 
preserved.  Such,  too,  fail  to  appear  in  the  Jewish 
annals,  which  contain  but  few  women's  names  of  any 
kind.  Inspired  devotion  of  strength  and  life  to  Ju- 
daism was  as  natural  with  a  Jewess  as  quiet,  unos- 
tentatious activity  in  her  home.  No  need,  therefore, 
to  make  mention  of  act  or  name. 

Jewish  woman,  then,  has  neither  found,  nor 
sought,  and  does  not  need,  a  Frauenlob,  historian  or 
poet,  to  proclaim  her  praise  in  the  gates,  to  touch  the 
strings  of  his  lyre  in  her  honor.  Her  life,  in  its  sim- 
plicity and  gentleness,  its  patience  and  exalted  devo- 
tion, is  itself  a  Song  of  Songs,  more  beautiful  than 
poet  ever  composed,  a  hymn  more  joyous  than  any 
ever  sung,  on  the  prophetess's  sublime  and  touching 
text,  Em  bey  Israel,  "  a  mother  in  Israel." 

As  Miriam  and  Deborah  are  representative  of 
womanhood  during  Israel's  national  life,  so  later 
times,  the  Talmudic  periods,  produced  women  with 
great  and  admirable  qualities.  Prominent  among 
them  was  Beruriah,  the  gentle  wife  of  Rabbi  Meir, 
the  Beruriah  whose  heart  is  laid  bare  in  the  follow- 
ing touching  story  from  the  Talmud:1 

1  Midrash  Yalkut  on  Proverbs. 


WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  III 

One  Sabbath  her  husband  had  been  in  the  acad- 
emy all  day  teaching  the  crowds  that  eagerly  flocked 
to  his  lectures.  During  his  absence  from  home,  his 
two  sons,  distinguished  for  beauty  and  learning, 
died  suddenly  of  a  malignant  disease.  Beruriah 
bore  the  dear  bodies  into  her  sleeping  chamber,  and 
spread  a  white  cloth  over  them.  When  the  rabbi 
returned  in  the  evening,  and  asked  for  his  boys  that, 
according  to  wont,  he  might  bless  them,  his  wife 
said,  "  They  have  gone  to  the  house  of  God." 

She  brought  the  wine-cup,  and  he  recited  the  con- 
cluding prayer  of  the  Sabbath,  drinking  from  the 
cup,  and,  in  obedience  to  a  hallowed  custom,  passing 
it  to  his  wife.  Again  he  asked,  "  Why  are  my  sons 
not  here  to  drink  from  the  blessed  cup?"  "They 
cannot  be  far  off,"  answered  the  patient  sufferer,  and 
suspecting  naught,  Rabbi  Me'ir  was  happy  and 
cheerful.  When  he  had  finished  his  meal,  Beruriah 
said :  "  Rabbi,  allow  me  to  ask  you  a  question." 
With  his  permission,  she  continued :  "  Some  time 
ago  a  treasure  was  entrusted  to  me,  and  now  the 
owner  demands  it.  Shall  I  give  it  up?"  "Surely, 
my  wife  should  not  find  it  necessary  to  ask  this 
question,"  said  the  rabbi.  "  Can  you  hesitate  about 
returning  property  to  its  rightful  owner?"  "True," 
she  replied,  "  but  I  thought  best  not  to  return  it  un- 
til I  had  advised  you  thereof."  And  she  led  him 
into  the  chamber  to  the  bed,  and  withdrew  the  cloth 
from  the  bodies.  "  O,  my  sons,  my  sons,"  lamented 
the  father  with  a  loud  voice,  "  light  of  my  eyes,  lamp 
of  my  soul.  I  was  your  father,  but  you  taught  me 


112  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

the  Law."  Her  eyes  suffused  with  tears,  Beruriah 
seized  her  grief-stricken  husband's  hand,  and  spoke: 
u  Rabbi,  did  you  not  teach  me  to  return  without 
reluctance  that  which  has  been  entrusted  to  our  safe- 
keeping? See,  'the  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.'" 
" '  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord,' "  repeated  the 
rabbi,  accepting  her  consolation,  "  and  blessed,  too, 
be  His  name  for  your  sake;  for,  it  is  written:  'Who 
can  find  a  virtuous  woman?  for  far  above  pearls  is 
her  value.  .  .  .  She  openeth  her  mouth  with  wis- 
dom, and  the  law  of  kindness  is  upon  her  tongue.' " 

Surrounded  by  the  halo  of  motherhood,  richly 
dowered  with  intellectual  gifts,  distinguished  for 
learning,  gentleness,  and  refinement,  Beruriah  is  a 
truly  poetic  figure.  Incensed  at  the  evil-doing  of 
the  unrighteous,  her  husband  prayed  for  their  de- 
struction. "How  can  you  ask  that,  Rabbi?"  Beru- 
riah interrupted  him;  "do  not  the  Scriptures  say: 
i  May  sins  cease  from  off  the  earth,  and  the  wicked 
will  be  no  more '  ?  When  sin  ceases,  there  will  be  no 
more  sinners.  Pray  rather,  my  rabbi,  that  they  re- 
pent, and  amend  their  ways."1 

That  a  woman  could  attain  to  Beruriah's  mental 
poise,  and  make  her  voice  heard  and  heeded  in  the 
councils  of  the  teachers  of  the  Law,  and  that  the 
rabbis  considered  her  sayings  and  doings  worthy  of 
record,  would  of  itself,  without  the  evidence  of  nu- 
merous other  learned  women  of  Talmud  fame, 
prove,  were  proof  necessary,  the  honorable  position 

1  Bcrachoih,  loa. 


WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  113 

occupied  by  Jewish  women  in  those  days.  Long 
before  Schiller,  the  Talmud  said  :x  "  Honor  women, 
because  they  bring  blessing."  Of  Abraham  it  is 
said:  "  It  was  well  with  him,  because  of  his  wife  Sa- 
rah." Again :  "  More  glorious  is  the  promise  made 
to  women,  than  that  to  men:  In  Isaiah  (xxxii.  9)  we 
read :  '  Ye  women  that  are  at  ease,  hear  my  voice !' 
for,  with  women  it  lies  to  inspire  their  husbands  and 
sons  with  zeal  for  the  study  of  the  Law,  the  most 
meritorious  of  deeds."  Everywhere  the  Talmud 
sounds  the  praise  of  the  virtuous  woman  of  Proverbs 
and  of  the  blessings  of  a  happy  family  life. 

A  single  Talmudic  sentence,  namely,  "  He  who 
teaches  his  daughter  the  Law,  teaches  her  what  is 
unworthy,"  torn  from  its  context,  and  falsely  inter- 
preted, has  given  rise  to  most  absurd  theories  with 
regard  to  the  views  of  Talmudic  times  on  the  matter 
of  woman's  education.  It  should  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration that  its  author,  who  is  responsible  also  for 
the  sentiment  that  "  woman's  place  is  at  the  distaff," 
was  the  husband  of  I  ma  Shalom,  a  clever,  highly 
cultured,  but  irascible  woman,  who  was  on  intimate 
terms  with  Jewish  Christians,  and  was  wont  to 
interfere  in  the  disputations  carried  on  by  men — in 
short,  a  representative  Talmudic  blue-stocking,  with 
all  the  attributes  with  which  fancy  would  be  prone 
to  invest  such  a  one.2 

Elsewhere  the  Talmud  tells  about  Rabbi  Nach- 
man's  wife  Yaltha,  the  proud  and  learned  daughter 
of  a  princely  line.  Her  guest,  the  poor  itinerant 

1  Baba  Metsiak,  59^.  s  Sofa,  2oa. 


114  WOMEN   IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

preacher  Rabbi  Ulla,  expressed  the  opinion  that 
according  to  the  Law  it  was  not  necessary  to  pass 
the  wine-cup  over  which  the  blessing  has  been  said 
to  women.  The  opinion,  surely  not  the  withheld 
wine,  so  angered  his  hostess,  that  she  shivered  four 
hundred  wine-pitchers,  letting  their  contents  flow 
over  the  ground.1  If  the  rabbis  had  such  incidents 
in  mind,  crabbed  utterances  were  not  unjustifiable. 
Perhaps  every  rabbinical  antagonist  to  woman's 
higher  education  was  himself  the  victim  of  a  learned 
wife,  who  regaled  him,  after  his  toilsome  research 
at  the  academy,  with  unpalatable  soup,  or,  wrorse 
still,  with  Talmudic  discussions.  Instances  are 
abundant  of  erudite  rabbis  tormented  by  their  wives. 
One,  we  are  told,  refused  to  cook  for  her  husband, 
and  another,  day  after  day,  prepared  a  certain  dish, 
knowing  that  he  would  not  touch  it. 

But  this  is  pleasantry.  It  would  betray  total  ig- 
norance of  the  Talmud  and  the  rabbis  to  impute  to 
them  the  scorn  of  woman  prevalent  at  that  time. 
The  Talmud  and  its  sages  never  weary  of  singing 
the  praise  of  women,  and  at  every  occasion  incul- 
cate respect  for  them,  and  devotion  to  their  service. 
The  compiler  of  the  Jerusalem  Talmud,  Rabbi  Jo- 
chanan,  \vhose  life  is  crowned  with  the  aureole  of 
romance,  pays  a  delicate  tribute  to  woman  by  the 
question :  "  Who  directed  the  first  prayer  of  thanks- 
giving to  God?  A  woman,  Leah,  when  she  cried 
out  in  the  fulness  of  her  joy:  '  Now  again  will  I 
praise  the  Lord/  " 

1  Berachoth,  51 3. 


WOMEN   IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  115 

Under  the  influence  of  such  ideal  views,  and  in 
obedience  to  such  standards,  Jewish  woman  led  a 
modest,  retired  life  of  domestic  activity,  the  help- 
meet and  solace  of  her  husband,  the  joy  of  his  age, 
the  treasure  of  his  liberty,  his  comforter  in  sorrow. 
For,  when  the  portentous  catastrophe  overwhelmed 
the  Jewish  nation,  when  Jerusalem  and  the  Temple 
lay  in  ruins,  when  the  noblest  of  the  people  were 
slain,  and  the  remnant  of  Israel  was  made  to  wander 
forth  out  of  his  land  into  a  hostile  world,  to  fulfil  his 
mission  as  a  witness  to  the  truth  of  monotheism, 
then  Jewish  woman,  too,  was  found  ready  to  assume 
the  burdens  imposed  by  distressful  days. 

Israel,  broken  up  into  unresisting  fragments,  be- 
gan his  two  thousand  years'  journey  through  the 
desert  of  time,  despoiled  of  all  possessions  except 
his  Law  and  his  family.  Of  these  treasures  Titus 
and  his  legions  could  not  rob  him.  From  the  ruins 
of  the  Jewish  state  blossomed  forth  the  spirit  of 
Jewish  life  and  law  in  vigorous  renewal.  Judaism 
rose  rejuvenated  on  the  crumbling  temples  of  Ju- 
piter, immaculate  in  doctrine,  incorruptible  in  prac- 
tice. Israel's  spiritual  guides  realized  that  adher- 
ence to  the  Law  is  the  only  safeguard  against  anni- 
hilation and  oblivion.  From  that  time  forth,  the 
men  became  the  guardians  of  the  Law,  the  women 
the  guardians  of  the  purity  of  life,  both  working 
harmoniously  for  the  preservation  of  Judaism. 

The  muse  of  history  recorded  no  names  of  Jew- 
ish women  from  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  to 
the  eleventh  century.  Yet  the  student  cannot  fail 


Il6  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

to  assign  the  remarkable  preservation  of  the  race  to 
woman's  gentle,  quiet,  though  paramount  influence 
by  the  side  of  the  earnest  tenacity  of  men.  Among 
Jews  leisure,  among  non-Jews  knowledge,  was  lack- 
ing to  preserve  names  for  the  instruction  of  pos- 
terity. Before  Jews  could  record  their  suffering, 
the  oppressor's  hand  again  fell,  its  grasp  more  relent- 
less than  ever.  For  many  centuries  blood  and  tears 
constitute  the  chronicle  of  Jewish  life,  and  at  the 
sources  of  these  streams  of  blood  and  rivers  of  tears, 
the  genius  of  Jewish  history-  sits  lamenting. 

Whenever  the  sun  of  tolerance  broke  through  the 
clouds  of  oppression,  and  for  even  a  brief  period 
shone  upon  the  martyr  race,  its  marvellous  develop- 
ment under  persecution  and  in  despite  of  unspeak- 
able suffering  at  once  stood  revealed.  During  these 
occasional  breaks  in  the  darkness,  women  appeared 
whose  erudition  was  so  profound  as  to  earn  special 
mention.  As  was  said  above,  the  first  names  of 
women  distinguished  for  beauty  and  intellect  come 
down  to  us  from  the  eleventh  century,  and  even  then 
only  Italy,  Provence,  Andalusia,  and  the  Orient,  were 
favored,  Jews  in  these  countries  living  unmolested 
and  in  comparative  freedom,  and  zealously  devoting 
their  leisure  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud  and  secular 
branches  of  learning.  In  praise  of  Italy  it  was  said: 
"  Out  of  Bari  goes  forth  the  Law,  and  the  word  of 
the  Lord  from  Otranto."  It  is,  therefore,  not  sur- 
prising to  read  in  Jewish  sources  of  the  maiden 
Paula,  of  the  family  Dei  Mansi  (Anawim),  the 
daughter  of  Abraham,  and  later  the  wife  of  Yechiel 


WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  IT/ 

dei  Mansi,  who,  in  1288,  copied  her  father's  abstruse 
Talmudic  commentary,  adding  ingenious  explana- 
tions, the  result  of  independent  research.  But  one 
grows  somewhat  sceptical  over  the  account,  by  a 
Jewish  tourist,  Rabbi  Petachya  of  Ratisbon,  of  Bath 
Halevi,  daughter  of  Rabbi  Samuel  ben  Ali  in  Bag- 
dad, equally  well-read  in  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud, 
and  famous  for  her  beauty.  She  lectured  on  the 
Talmud  to  a  large  number  of  students,  and,  to  pre- 
vent their  falling  in  love  with  her,  she  sat  behind 
lattice-work  or  in  a  glass  cabinet,  that  she  might  be 
heard  but  not  seen.  The  dry  tourist-chronicler  fails 
to  report  whether  her  disciples  approved  of  the  pre- 
ventive measure,  and  whether  in  the  end  it  turned 
out  to  have  been  effectual.  At  all  events,  the  ex- 
ample of  the  learned  maiden  found  an  imitator.  Al- 
most a  century  later  we  meet  with  Miriam  Shapiro, 
of  Constance,  a  beautiful  Jewish  girl,  who  likewise 
delivered  public  lectures  on  the  Talmud  sitting  be- 
hind a  curtain,  that  the  attention  of  her  inquisitive 
pupils  might  not  be  distracted  by  sight  of  her  from 
their  studies. 

Of  the  learned  El  Muallima  we  are  told  that  she 
transplanted  Karaite  doctrines  from  the  Orient  to 
Castile,  where  she  propagated  them.  The  daughter 
of  the  prince  of  poets,  Yehuda  Halevi,  is  accredited 
with  a  soulful  religious  poem  hitherto  attributed  to 
her  father,  and  Rabbi  Joseph  ibn  Nagdela's  wife  was 
esteemed  the  most  learned  and  representative  wo- 
man in  Granada.  Even  in  the  choir  of  Arabic-An- 
dalusian  poets  we  hear  the  voice  of  a  Jewish  song- 


Il8  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

stress,  Kasmune,  the  daughter  of  the  poet  Ishmael. 
Only  a  few  blossoms  of  her  delicate  poetry  have 
been  preserved.1  Catching  sight  of  her  young  face 
in  the  mirror,  she  called  out: 

"A  vine  I  see,  and  though  'tis  time  to  glean, 

No  hand  is  yet  stretched  forth  to  cull  the  fruit. 
Alas  !  my  youth  doth  pass  in  sorrow  keen, 
A  nameless  '  him  '  my  eyes  in  vain  salute.'1 

Her  pet  gazelle,  raised  by  herself,  she  addresses 
thus: 

"  In  only  thee,  my  timid,  fleet  gazelle, 

Dark-eyed  like  thee,  I  see  my  counterpart ; 
We  both  live  lone,  without  companion  dwell, 
Accepting  fate's  decree  with  patient  heart." 

Of  other  women  we  are  told  whose  learning  and 
piety  inspired  respect,  not  only  in  Talmudic  authori- 
ties, but,  more  than  that,  in  their  sisters  in  faith. 
Especially  in  the  family  of  Rashi  (Rabbi  Solomon 
ben  Isaac),  immortal  through  his  commentaries  on 
the  Bible  and  the  Talmud,  a  number  of  women  dis- 
tinguished themselves.  His  daughter  Rachel  (Belle- 
jeune),  on  one  occasion  when  her  father  was  sick, 
wrote  out  for  Rabbi  Abraham  Cohen  of  Mayence 
an  opinion  on  religious  questions  in  dispute.  Rashi's 
two  granddaughters,  Anna  and  Miriam,  were  equally 
famous.  In  questions  relating  to  the  dietary  laws, 
they  were  cited  as  authorities,  and  their  decisions 
accepted  as  final. 

1  Cmp.  W.  Bacher  in  Frankel-Graetz  Monatsschrift,  Vol.  XX., 
p.  186. 


WOMEN   IN  JEWISH    LITERATURE  1 19 

Zunz  calls  the  wife  of  Rabbi  Joseph  ben  Jochanan 
of  Paris  "almost  a  rabbi";  and  Dolce,  wife  of  the 
learned  Rabbi  Eleazar  of  Worms,  supported  her 
family  with  the  work  of  her  hands,  was  a  thorough 
student  of  the  dietary  laws,  taught  women  on  Jew- 
ish subjects,  and  on  Sabbath  delivered  public  lec- 
tures. She  wore  the  twofold  crown  of  learning  and 
martyrdom.  On  December  6,  1213,  fanatic  crusa- 
ders rushed  into  the  rabbi's  house,  and  most  cruelly 
killed  her  and  her  two  daughters,  Bella  and  Anna. 

Israel  having  again  fallen  on  evil  times,  the  rarity 
of  women  writers  during  the  next  two  centuries 
needs  no  explanation.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
their  names  reappear  on  the  records,  not  only  as 
Talmudic  scholars,  but  also  as  writers  of  history  in 
the  German  language.  Litte  of  Ratisbon  composed 
a  history  of  King  David  in  the  celebrated  "  Book  of 
Samuel,"  a  poem  in  the  Nibelungen  stanza,  and  we 
are  told  that  Rachel  Ackermann  of  Vienna  was 
banished  for  having  written  a  piquant  novel,  "  Court 
Secrets." 

These  tentative  efforts  led  the  way  to  busy  and 
widespread  activity  by  Jewish  women  in  various 
branches  of  literature  at  a  somewhat  later  period, 
when  the  so-called  Judendeutschy  also  known  as 
Altweiberdeutsch  (old  women's  German),  came  into 
general  use.  Rebekah  Tiktiner,  daughter  of  Rabbi 
Me'ir  Tiktiner,  attained  to  a  reputation  considerable 
enough  to  suggest  her  scholarly  work  to  J.  G.  Zelt- 
ner,  a  Rostock  professor,  as  the  subject  of  an  essay 
published  in  1719.  Her  book,  Meneketh  Ribka, 


I2O  WOMEN   IN  JEWISH   LITERATURE 

deals  with  the  duties  of  woman.  Edel  Mendels  of 
Cracow  epitomized  "  Yosippon "  (History  of  the 
Jews  after  Josephus);  Bella  Chasan,  who  died  a 
martyr's  death,  composed  two  instructive  works 
on  Jewish  history,  in  their  time  widely  read;  Glikel 
Hamel  of  Hamburg  wrote  her  memoirs,  describing 
her  contemporaries  and  the  remarkable  events  of 
her  life;  Hannah  Ashkenasi  was  the  author  of  ad- 
dresses on  moral  subjects;  and  Ella  Gotz  translated 
the  Hebrew  prayers  into  Jewish-German. 

Litte  of  Ratisbon  found  imitators.  Rosa  Fischels 
of  Cracow  was  the  first  to  put  the  psalms  into  Jew- 
ish-German rhymes  (1586).  She  turned  the  whole 
psalter  "  into  simple  German  very  prettily,  modestly, 
and  withal  pleasantly  for  women  and  maidens  to 
read."  The  authoress  acknowledges  that  it  was  her 
aim  to  imitate  the  rhyme  and  melody  of  the  "  Book 
of  Samuel "  by  her  famed  predecessor.  Occasion- 
ally her  paraphrase  rises  to  the  height  of  true  poetry, 
as  in  the  first  and  last  verses  of  Psalm  xcvi: 

"Sing  to  God  a  new  song,  sing  to  God  all  the 
land,  sing  to  God,  praise  His  name,  show  forth  His 
ready  help  from  day  to  day.  .  .  .  The  field  and  all 
thereon  shall  show  great  joy;  they  will  sing  with  all 
their  leaves,  the  trees  of  the  wood  and  the  grove, 
before  the  Lord  God  who  will  come  to  judge  the 
earth  far  and  near.  He  judgeth  the  earth  with 
righteousness  and  the  nations  with  truth." 

Rosa  Fischels  was  followed  by  a  succession  of 
women  writers:  Taube  Pan  in  Prague,  a  poetess; 
Bella  Hurwitz,  who  wrote  a  history  of  the  House 


WOMEN   IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  121 

of  David,  and,  in  association  with  Rachel  Rausnitz, 
an  account  of  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Prague;  and 
a  number  of  scholarly  women  famous  among  their 
co-religionists  for  knowledge  of  the  Talmud,  piety, 
and  broad,  secular  culture. 

In  a  rapid  review  like  this  of  woman's  achieve- 
ments on  the  field  of  Jewish  scholarship,  the  results 
recorded  must  appear  meagre,  owing  partly  to  the 
paucity  of  available  data,  partly  to  the  nature  of  the 
inquiry.  Abstruse  learning,  pure  science,  original 
research,  are  by  no  means  woman's  portion.  Such 
occupations  demand  complete  surrender  on  the 
part  of  the  student,  uninterrupted  attention  to  the 
subject  pursued,  and  delicately  organized  woman 
is  not  capable  of  such  absorption.  Woman's  per- 
ceptions are  subtle,  and  she  rests  satisfied  with  her 
intuitions;  while  man  strives  to  transmute  his  feel- 
ings, deeper  than  hers,  into  action.  The  external 
appeals  to  woman  who  comprehends  easily  and 
quickly,  and,  therefore,  does  not  penetrate  beneath 
the  surface.  Man,  on  the  other  hand,  strives  to 
pierce  to  the  essence  of  things,  apprehends  more 
slowly,  but  thinks  more  profoundly,  and  tests  care- 
fully before  he  accepts.  Hence  we  so  rarely  meet 
woman  in  the  field  of  science,  while  her  work  in  the 
domain  of  poetry  and  the  humanities  is  abundant 
and  attractive.  Jewish  women  form  no  exception 
to  the  rule:  a  survey  of  Jewish  poetry  will  show 
woman's  share  in  its  productions  to  have  been  con- 
siderable and  of  high  quality.  While  there  was 
little  or  no  possibility  to  prosecute  historic  or  scien- 


122  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

tific  inquiry  during  the  harrowing  days  of  persecu- 
tion, the  well-spring  of  Jewish  poetry  never  ran  dry. 
Poetry  followed  the  race  into  exile,  and  clave  to  it 
through  all  vicissitudes,  its  solacement  in  suffering, 
the  holy  mediatrix  between  its  past  and  future. 
"  The  Orient  dwells  an  exile  in  the  Occident,  and  its 
tears  of  longing  for  home  are  the  fountain-head  of 
Jewish  poetry,"  says  a  Christian  scholar.  And  at 
the  altar  of  this  poetry,  whose  sweetness  and  purity 
sanctified  home  life,  and  spread  a  sense  of  morality 
in  a  time  when  brutality  and  corruptness  were  gen- 
eral, the  women  singers  of  Israel  offered  the  gifts  of 
their  muse.  While  the  culture  of  that  time  culmi- 
nated in  the  service  of  love  (Minnediensf),  in  woman 
worship,  so  offensive  to  modern  taste,  Jewish  poetry 
was  pervaded  by  a  pure,  ideal  conception  of  love 
and  womanhood,  testifying  to  the  high  ethical  prin- 
ciples of  its  devotees. 

Judaism  and  Jewish  poetry  know  naught  of  the 
sensual  love  so  assiduously  fostered  by  the  cult  of  the 
Virgin.  "Love,"  says  a  celebrated  historian  of  lit- 
erature, "was  glorified  in  all  shapes  and  guises,  and 
represented  as  the  highest  aim  of  life.  Woman's 
virtues,  yea,  even  her  vices,  were  invested  with  ex- 
aggerated importance.  Woman  became  accus- 
tomed to  think  that  she  could  be  neither  faithful  nor 
faithless  without  turning  the  world  topsy-turvy.  She 
shared  the  fate  of  all  objects  of  excessive  adulation: 
flattery  corrupted  her.  Thus  it  came  about  that  love 
of  woman  overshadowed  every  other  social  force 
and  every  form  of  family  affection,  and  so  spent  its 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  123 

power.  The  Jews  were  the  only  ones  sane  enough 
to  subordinate  sexual  love  to  reverence  for  mother- 
hood. Alexander  Weill  makes  a  Jewish  mother 
say :  '  Is  it  proper  for  a  good  Jewish  mother  to  con- 
cern herself  about  love?  Love  is  revolting  idolatry. 
A  Jewess  may  love  only  God,  her  husband,  and  her 
children/  Granny  (Alt-Babele)  in  one  of  Kompert's 
tales  says :  '  God  could  not  be  everywhere,  so  he  cre- 
ated mothers.'  In  Jewish  novels,  maternal  love  is 
made  the  basis  of  family  life,  its  passion  and  its  mys- 
tery. A  Jewish  mother!  What  an  image  the  words 
conjure  up!  Her  face  is  calm,  though  pale;  a  mel- 
ancholy smile  rests  upon  her  lips,  and  her  soulful 
eyes  seem  to  hide  in  their  depths  the  vision  of  a  re- 
mote future." 

This  is  a  correct  view.  Jewish  poetry  is  inter- 
penetrated with  the  breath  of  intellectual  love,  that  is, 
love  growing  out  of  the  recognition  of  duty,  no  less 
ideal  than  sensual  love.  In  the  heart  of  the  Jew 
love  is  an  infinite  force.  Too  mighty  to  be  con- 
fined to  the  narrow  limits  of  personal  passion,  it  ex- 
tends so  as  to  include  future  generations. 

Thus  it  happened  that  while  in  Christian  poetry 
woman  was  the  subject  of  song  and  sonnet,  in  Jew- 
ish poetry  she  herself  sang  and  composed,  and  her 
productions  are  worthy  of  ranking  beside  the  best 
poetic  creations  of  each  generation. 

The  earliest  blossoms  of  Jewish  poetry  by  women 
unfolded  in  the  spring-like  atmosphere  of  the  Re- 
naissance under  the  blue  sky  of  Italy,  the  home  of 
the  immortal  trio,  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio, 


124  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

The  first  Jewish  women  writers  of  Italian  verse  were 
Deborah  Ascarelli  and  Sara  Copia  Sullam,  who,  ar- 
rayed in  the  full  panoply  of  the  culture  of  their  day, 
and  as  thoroughly  equipped  with  Jewish  knowledge, 
devoted  their  talents  and  their  zeal  to  the  service  of 
their  nation. 

Deborah  Ascarelli  of  Rome,  the  pride  of  her  sex, 
was  the  wife  of  the  respected  rabbi  Giuseppe  Asca- 
relli, and  lived  at  Venice  in  the  beginning  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century.  She  made  a  graceful  Italian 
translation  of  Moses  Rieti's  Sefer  ha-Hechal,  a  He- 
brew poem  written  in  imitation  of  the  Divina  Coin- 
media,  and  enjoying  much  favor  at  Rome.  As 
early  as  1609,  David  della  Rocca  published  a  second 
edition  of  her  translation,  dedicating  it  to  the  charm- 
ing authoress.  To  put  the  highly  wrought,  artificial 
poetry  of  the  Hebrew  Dante  into  mellifluous  Italian 
verse  was  by  no  means  easy.  While  Rieti's  poetry 
is  not  distinguished  by  the  vigor  and  fulness  of  the 
older  classical  productions  of  neo-Hebraic  poetry, 
his  rhythm  is  smooth,  pleasant,  and  polished.  Yet 
her  rendition  is  admirable.  Besides,  she  won  fame 
as  a  writer  of  hymns  in  praise  of  the  God  of  her 
people,  who  so  wondrously  rescued  it  from  all  man- 
ner of  distress. 

"  Let  other  poets  of  victory's  trophies  tell, 
Thy  song  will  e'er  thy  people's  praises  swell," 

says  a  Jewish  Italian  poet  enchanted  by  her  talent. 
A  still  more  gifted  poetess  was  Sara  Copia  Sul~ 


WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE  125 

lam,  a  particular  star  in  Judah's  galaxy.1  The  only 
child  of  a  wealthy  Venetian  at  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  she  was  indulged  in  her  love  of 
study,  and  afforded  every  opportunity  to  advance  in 
the  arts  and  sciences.  "  She  revelled  in  the  realm 
of  beauty,  and  crystallized  her  enthusiasm  in  grace- 
ful, sweet,  maidenly  verses.  Young,  lovely,  of  gen- 
erous impulses  and  keen  intellectual  powers,  her 
ambition  set  upon  lofty  attainments,  a  favorite  of 
the  muses,  Sara  Copia  charmed  youth  and  age." 

These  graces  of  mind  became  her  misfortune.  An 
old  Italian  priest,  Ansaldo  Ceba,  in  Genoa,  pub- 
lished an  Italian  epic  with  the  Esther  of  the  Bible  as 
the  heroine.  Sara  was  delighted  with  the  choice 
of  the  subject.  It  was  natural  that  a  high-minded, 
sensitive  girl  with  lofty  ideals,  stung  to  the  quick  by 
the  injustice  and  contumely  suffered  by  her  people, 
should  rejoice  extravagantly  in  the  praise  lavished 
upon  a  heroine  of  her  nation.  Carried  away  by  en- 
thusiasm she  wrote  the  poet,  a  stranger  to  her,  a  let- 
ter overflowing  with  gratitude  for  the  pure  delight 
his  poem  had  yielded  her.  Her  passionate  warmth, 
betraying  at  once  the  accomplished  poetess  and  the 
gifted  thinker,  did  not  fail  to  fascinate  the  old  priest, 
who  immediately  resolved  to  capture  this  beautiful 
soul  for  the  church.  His  desire  brought  about  a 
lively  correspondence,  our  chief  source  of  informa- 
tion about  Sara  Copia.  Her  conversion  became  a 
passion  with  th*  highstrung  priest,  taking  complete 

1  Cmp.  E.  David,  Sara  Copia  Sullam,  une  heroine  juive  au 
X  VI Ie  siecle. 


126  WOMEN    IN   JEWISH    LITERATURE 

possession  of  him  during  the  last  years  of  his  life. 
He  brought  to  bear  upon  her  case  every  trick  of  dia- 
lectics and  flattery  at  his  command.  All  in  vain. 
The  greatest  successes  of  which  he  could  boast  were 
her  promise  to  read  the  New  Testament,  and  her 
consent  to  his  praying  for  her  conversion.  Sara's 
arguments  in  favor  of  Judaism  arouse  the  reader's 
admiration  for  the  sharpness  of  intellect  displayed, 
her  poetic  genius,  and  her  intimate  acquaintance 
with  Jewish  sources  as  well  as  philosophic  systems. 

Ansaldo  never  abandoned  the  hope  of  gaining  her 
over  to  Christianity.  Unable  to  convince  her  rea- 
son, he  attacked  her  heart.  Though  evincing  sin- 
gular love  and  veneration  for  her  old  admirer,  Sara 
could  not  be  moved  from  steadfast  adherence  to  her 
faith.  She  sent  him  her  picture  with  the  words: 
"  This  is  the  picture  of  one  who  carries  yours  deeply 
graven  on  her  heart,  and,  with  finger  pointing  to  her 
bosom,  tells  the  world :  '  Here  dwells  my  idol,  bow 
before  him.'" 

With  old  age  creeping  upon  him  with  its  palsy 
touch,  he  continued  to  think  of  nothing  but  Sara's 
conversion,  and  assailed  her  in  prose  and  verse. 
One  of  his  imploring  letters  closes  thus: 

"  Life's  fair,  bright  morn  bathes  thee  in  light, 

Thy  cheeks  are  softly  flushed  with  youthful  zest. 
For  me  the  night  sets  in;  my  limbs 

Are  cold,  but  ardent  love  glows  in  my  breast" 

Sara  having  compared  his  poems  with  those  of 
Amphion  and  Orpheus,  he  answered  her: 


WOMEN    IN  JEWISH    LITERATURE  12? 

"To  Amphion  the  stones  lent  ear 

When  soft  he  touched  his  lute  ; 
And  beasts  came  trooping  nigh  to  hear 
When  Orpheus  played  his  flute. 

How  long,  O  Sara,  wilt  thou  liken  me 

To  those  great  singers  of  the  olden  days  ? 

My  God  and  faith  I  sought  to  give  to  thee, 
In  vain  I  proved  the  error  of  thy  ways. 

Their  song  had  charms  more  potent  than  my  own, 

Or  art  thou  harder  than  a  beast  or  stone  ?  " 

The  query  long  remained  unanswered,  for  just 
then  the  poetess  was  harassed  by  many  trials.  Se- 
rious illness  prostrated  her,  then  her  beloved  father 
died,  and  finally  she  was  unjustly  charged  by  the 
envious  among  her  co-religionists  with  neglect  of 
Jewish  observances,  and  denial  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Law.  She  found  no  difficulty  in  refuting  the 
malicious  accusation,  but  she  was  stung  to  the  quick 
by  the  calumnious  attack,  the  pain  it  inflicted  vanish- 
ing only  in  the  presence  of  a  grave  danger.  Bal- 
thasar  Bonifacio,  an  obscure  author,  in  a  brochure 
published  for  that  purpose,  accused  her  of  rejecting 
the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  a  most 
serious  charge,  which,  if  sustained,  would  have 
thrown  her  into  the  clutches  of  the  Inquisition.  In 
two  days  she  wrote  a  brilliant  defense  completely 
exonerating  herself  and  exposing  the  spitefulness  of 
the  attack,  a  masterful  production  by  reason  of  its 
vigorous  dialectics,  incisive  satire,  and  noble  enthu- 
siasm for  the  cause  of  religion.  Together  with  some 
few  of  her  sonnets,  this  is  all  that  has  come  down  to 
us  of  her  writings.  She  opened  her  vindication  with 
the  following  sonnet: 


128  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

"  O  Lord,  Thou  know'st  my  inmost  hope  and  thought, 
Thou  know'st  whene'er  before  Thy  judgment  throne 
I  shed  salt  tears,  and  uttered  many  a  moan, 
'Twas  not  for  vanities  that  I  besought. 

O  turn  on  me  Thy  look  with  mercy  fraught, 
And  see  how  envious  malice  makes  me  groan  ! 
The  pall  upon  my  heart  by  error  thrown 

Remove  ;  illume  me  with  Thy  radiant  thought. 
At  truth  let  not  the  wicked  scorner  mock, 
O  Thou,  that  breath'dst  in  me  a  spark  divine. 
The  lying  tongue's  deceit  with  silence  blight, 
Protect  me  from  its  venom,  Thou,  my  Rock, 
And  show  the  spiteful  sland'rer  by  this  sign 
That  Thou  dost  shield  me  with  Thy  endless  might." 

Sara's  vindication  was  complete.  Her  friend 
Ceba  was  kept  faithfully  informed  of  all  that  befell 
her,  but  he  was  absorbed  in  thoughts  of  her  conver- 
sion and  his  approaching  end.  He  wrote  to  her 
that  he  did  not  care  to  receive  any  more  letters  from 
her  unless  they  announced  her  acceptance  of  the 
true  faith. 

After  Ansaldo's  death,  we  hear  nothing  more 
about  the  poetess.  She  died  at  the  beginning  of 
1641,  and  the  celebrated  rabbi,  Leon  de  Modena, 
composed  her  epitaph,  a  poetic  tribute  to  one  whose 
life  redounded  to  the  glory  of  Judaism. 

Our  subject  now  carries  us  from  the  luxuriant 
south  to  the  dunes  of  the  North  Sea.  Holland  was 
the  first  to  open  the  doors  of  its  cities  hospitably  to 
the  three  hundred  thousand  Jews  exiled  from  Spain, 
and  its  busy  capital  Amsterdam  became  the  centre 
whither  tended  the  intelligent  of  the  Marranos,  flee- 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  1 29 

ing  before  the  Holy  Inquisition.  Physicians,  mathe- 
maticians, philologists,  military  men,  and  diplomats, 
poets'  and  poetesses,  took  refuge  there.  Among  the 
poetesses,1  the  most  prominent  was  Isabella  Correa, 
distinguished  for  wit  as  well  as  poetic  endowment, 
the  wife  of  the  Jewish  captain  and  author,  Nicolas 
de  Oliver  y  Fullano,  of  Majorca.  One  of  her  con- 
temporaries, Daniel  de  Barrios,  says  that  "  she  was 
an  accomplished  linguist,  wrote  delightful  letters, 
composed  exquisite  verses,  played  the  lute  like  a 
maestro,  and  sang  like  an  angel.  Her  sparkling 
black  eyes  sent  piercing  darts  into  every  beholder's 
heart,  and  she  was  famed  for  beauty  as  well  as  intel- 
lect." She  made  a  noble  Spanish  translation  of 
Pastor  Fido,  the  most  popular  Italian  drama  of  the 
day,  and  published  a  volume  of  poems,  also  in 
Spanish.  Antonio  dos  Keys  sings  her  praises: 

"  Pastor  Fido  !  110  longer  art  thou  read  in  thy  own  tongue, 

since  Correa, 
Faithfully  rendering  thy  song,   created    thee   anew  in 

Spanish  forms. 

A  laurel  wreath  surmounts  her  brow, 
Because  her  right  hand  had  cunning  to  strike  tones  from 

the  tragic  lyre. 

On  the  mount  of  singers,  a  seat  is  reserv.ed  for  her, 
Albeit  many  a  Batavian  voice  refused  consent. 
For,  Correa's  faith  invited  scorn  from  aliens, 
And  her  own  despised  her  cheerful  serenity. 
Now,  with  greater  justice,  all  bend  a  reverent  knee  to 

Correa,  the  Jewess, 
Correa,  who,  it  seem?,  is  wholly  like  Lysia." 

'  For  the  following,  compare  Kayserling,  Scphardim,  p.  250^" 


I3O  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

Donna  Isabella  Enriquez,  a  Spanish  poetess  of 
great  versatility,  was  her  contemporary.  She  lived 
first  in  Madrid,  afterwards  in  Amsterdam,  and  even 
in  advanced  age  was  surrounded  by  admirers.  At 
the  age  of  sixty-two,  she  presented  the  men  of  her 
acquaintance  with  amulets  against  love,  notwith- 
standing that  she  had  spoken  and  written  against 
the  use  of  charms.  For  instance,  when  an  egg  with 
a  crown  on  the  end  was  found  in  the  house  of  Isaac 
Aboab,  the  celebrated  rabbi  at  Amsterdam,  she 
wrote  him  the  following: 

"  See,  the  terror  !  Lo  !  the  wonder  ! 
Basilisk,  the  fabled  viper  ! 
Superstition  names  it  so. 
Look  at  it,  I  pray,  with  calmness, 
'Twas  thy  mind  that  was  at  fault. 
God's  great  goodness  is  displayed  here; 
He,  I  trow,  rewards  thy  eloquence 
In  the  monster  which  thou  seest : 
All  this  rounded  whole's  thy  virtue, 
Wisdom's  symbol  is  the  crown  !  " 

Besides  Isabella  Correa  and  Isabella  Enriquez, 
we  have  the  names,  though  not  the  productions,  of 
Sara  de  Fonseca  Pina  y  Pimentel,  Bienvenida  Cohen 
Belmonte,  and  Manuela  Nunes  de  Almeida.  They 
have  left  but  faint  traces  of  their  work,  and  fancy 
can  fill  in  the  sketch  only  with  conjectures. 

After  these  Marrano  poetesses,  silence  fell  upon 
the  women  of  Israel  for  a  whole  century — a  century 
of  oppression  and  political  slavery,  of  isolation  in 
noisome  Ghettos,  of  Christian  scorn  and  mockery. 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  13! 

The  Jews  of  Germany  and  Poland,  completely 
crushed  beneath  the  load  of  sorrow,  hibernated  un- 
til the  gentle  breath  of  a  new  time,  levelling  Ghetto 
walls  and  heralding  a  dawn  when  human  rights 
would  be  recognized,  awoke  them  to  activity  and 
achievement. 

Mighty  is  the  spirit  of  the  times!  It  clears  a  way 
for  itself,  boldly  pushing  aside  every  stumbling- 
block  in  the  shape  of  outworn  prejudices  and  decay- 
ing customs.  A  century  dawned,  the  promise  of 
liberty  and  tolerance  flaming  on  its  horizon,  to  none 
so  sweet  as  to  the  Jew.  Who  has  the  heart  to  cast 
the  first  stone  upon  a  much-tried  race,  tortured 
throughout  the  centuries,  for  surrendering  itself  to 
the  unwonted  joy  of  living,  for  drinking  deep,  in- 
toxicating draughts  from  the  newly  discovered 
fount  of  liberty,  and,  alas!  for  throwing  aside,  under 
the  burning  sun  of  the  new  era,  the  perennial  protec- 
tion of  its  religion?  And  may  we  utterly  condemn 
the  daughters  of  Israel,  the  "  roses  of  Sharon,"  and 
"  lilies  of  the  valleys,"  "  unkissed  by  the  dew,  lost 
wanderers  cheered  by  no  greeting,"  who,  now  that 
all  was  sunshine,  forgot  their  people,  and  disre- 
garded the  sanctity  of  family  bonds,  their  shield  and 
their  refuge  in  the  sorrow  and  peril  of  the  dark  ages? 

With  emotion,  with  pain,  not  with  resentment, 
Jewish  history  tells  of  those  women,  who  spurned 
Judaism,  knowing  only  its  external  appearance,  its 
husk,  not  its  essence,  high  ethical  principles  and 
philosophical  truths — of  Rahel  Varnhagen,  Henri- 
ette  Herz,  Regina  Frohlich,  Dorothea  Mendelssohn, 


132  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

Sarah  and  Marianne  Meyer,  Esther  Gad,  and  many 
others,  first  products  of  German  culture  in  alliance 
with  Jewish  wit  and  brilliancy. 

Rahel  Levin  was  the  foster-mother  of  "  Young 
Germany,"  and  leader  in  the  woman's  emancipation 
movement,  so  fruitful  later  on  of  deplorable  ex- 
cesses. Rahel  herself  never  overstepped  the  limits 
of  "  da s  Ewig-Weibliche"  No  act  of  hers  ran 
counter  to  the  most  exalted  requirements  of  moral- 
ity. Her  being  was  pervaded  by  high  seriousness, 
noble  dignity,  serene  cheerfulness.  "  She  dwelt  al- 
ways in  the  Holy  of  holies  of  thought,  and  even  her 
most  daring  wishes  for  herself  and  mankind  leapt 
shyly  heavenwards  like  pure  sacrificial  flames.'' 
Nothing  more  touching  can  be  found  in  the  history 
of  the  human  heart  than  her  confession  before 
death :  "  With  sublime  rapture  I  dwell  upon  my  ori- 
gin and  the  marvellous  web  woven  by  fate,  binding 
together  the  oldest  recollections  of  the  human  race 
and  its  most  recent  aspirations,  connecting  scenes 
separated  by  the  greatest  possible  intervals  of  time 
and  space.  My  Jewish  birth  which  I  long  consid- 
ered a  stigma,  a  sore  disgrace,  has  now  become  a 
precious  inheritance,  of  which  nothing  on  earth  can 
deprive  me."1 

The  fact  is  that  Rahel  Levin  was  a  great  woman, 
great  even  in  her  aberrations,  while  her  satellites, 
shining  by  reflected  light,  and  pretending  to  per- 
petuate her  spirit,  transgressed  the  bounds  of  wom- 

1  Cmp.  Rahel,  ein  Buck  dts  Andenkens  fur  ihre  Freunde, 
Vol.  I.,  p.  43- 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  133 

anliness,  and  opened  wide  a  door  to  riotous  sensu- 
ality. Certain  opponents  of  the  woman's  emancipa- 
tion movement  take  malicious  satisfaction  in  re- 
hearsing that  it  was  a  Jewess  who  inaugurated  it, 
prudently  neglecting  to  mention  that  in  the  list  of 
Rahel's  followers,  not  one  Jewish  name  appears. 

The  spirit  of  Judaism  and  with  it  the  spirit  of 
morality  can  never  be  extinguished.  They  may 
flag,  or  vanish  for  a  time,  but  their  restoration  in 
increased  vigor  and  radiance  is  certain;  for,  they 
bear  within  themselves  the  guarantee  of  a  future. 
Henriette  Herz,  the  apostate  daughter  of  Judaism 
chewing  the  cud  of  Schleiermacher's  sentimentality 
and  SchlegePs  romanticism,  had  not  yet  passed  away 
when  England  produced  Jewish  women  whose  deeds 
were  quickened  by  the  spirit  of  olden  heroism,  who 
walked  in  the  paths  of  wisdom  and  faith,  and,  recoil- 
ing from  the  cowardice  that  counsels  apostasy, 
would  have  fought,  if  need  be,  suffered,  and  bled, 
for  their  faith.  What  answer  but  the  blush  of  shame 
mantling  her  cheek  could  the  proud  beauty  have 
found,  had  she  been  asked  by,  let  us  say,  Lady  Ju- 
dith Montefiore,  to  tell  what  it  was  that  chained  her 
to  the  ruins  of  the  Jewish  race? 

Lady  Montefiore  truly  was  a  heroine,  worthy  to 
be  named  with  those  who  have  made  our  past  illus- 
trious, and  her  peer  in  intellect  and  strength  of 
character  was  Charlotte  Montefiore,  whose  early 
death  was  a  serious  loss  to  Judaism  as  well  as  to  her 
family.  Her  work,  "  A  Few  Words  to  the  Jews  by 
one  of  themselves,"  containing  that  charming  tale, 


134  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

"  The  Jewel  Island,"  displays  intellectual  and  poetic 
gifts. 

The  most  prominent  of  women  writers  in  our  era 
unquestionably  is  Grace  Aguilar,  in  whom  we  must 
admire  the  rare  union  of  broad  culture  and  profound 
piety.  She  was  born  at  Hackney  in  June  of  1816, 
and  early  showed  extraordinary  talent  and  insati- 
able thirst  for  knowledge.  In  her  twelfth  year  she 
wrote  "  Gustavus  Vasa,"  an  historical  drama  evinc- 
ing such  unusual  gifts  that  her  parents  were  induced 
to  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  her  education. 
It  is  a  charming  picture  this,  of  a  young,  gifted 
girl,  under  the  loving  care  of  cultured  parents  actu- 
ated by  the  sole  desire  to  imbue  their  daughter  with 
their  own  taste  for  natural  and  artistic  beauty  and 
their  steadfast  love  for  Judaism,  and  content  to  lead 
a  modest  existence,  away  from  the  bustle  and  the 
opportunities  of  the  city,  in  order  to  be  able  to  give 
themselves  up  wholly  to  the  education  and  compan- 
ionship of  their  beloved,  only  daughter.  Under  the 
influence  of  a  wise  friend,  Grace  Aguilar  herself  tells 
us,  she  supplicated  God  to  enable  her  to  do  some- 
thing by  which  her  people  might  gain  higher  es- 
teem with  their  Christian  fellow-citizens. 

God  hearkened  unto  her  prayer,  for  her  efforts 
were  crowned  with  success.  Her  first  work  was  the 
translation  of  a  book  from  the  Hebrew,  "  Israel  De- 
fended." Next  came  "  The  Magic  Wreath,"  a  col- 
lection of  poems,  and  then  her  well-known  works, 
"Home  Influence,"  "  The  Spirit  of  Judaism,"  her 
best  production,  "The  Women  of  Israel,"  "The 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  135 

Jewish  Faith,"  and  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Eng- 
land " — a  rich  harvest  for  one  whose  span  of  life 
was  short.  Her  pen  was  dipped  into  the  blood  of 
her  veins  and  the  sap  of  her  nerves;  the  sacred  fire 
of  the  prophets  burnt  in  her  soul,  and  she  was  in- 
spired by  olden  Jewish  enthusiasm  and  devotion  to 
a  trust. 

So  ardent  a  spirit  could  not  long  be  imprisoned 
within  so  frail  a  body.  In  the  very  prime  of  life, 
just  thirty-one  years  old,  Grace  Aguilar  passed 
away,  as  though  her  beautiful  soul  were  hastening 
to  shake  off  the  mortal  coil.  She  rests  in  German 
earth,,  in  the  Frankfort  Jewish  cemetery.  Her 
grave  is  marked  with  a  simple  stone,  bearing  an 
equally  simple  epitaph: 

"  Give  her  of  the  fruit  of  her  hands, 
And  let  her  own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 

Her  death  was  deeply  lamented  far  and  wide. 
She  was  a  golden  link  in  the  chain  of  humanity — a 
bold,  courageous,  withal  thoroughly  womanly 
woman,  a  God-inspired  daughter  of  her  race  and 
faith.  "  We  are  persuaded,"  says  a  non-Jewish 
friend  of  hers,  "  that  had  this  young  woman  lived  in 
the  times  of  frightful  persecution,  she  would  willing- 
ly have  mounted  the  stake  for  her  faith,  praying  for 
her  murderers  with  her  last  breath."  That  the  no- 
bility of  a  solitary  woman,  leaping  like  a  flame  from 
heart  to  heart,  may  inspire  highminded  thoughts, 
and  that  Grace  Aguilar's  life  became  a  blessing  for 
her  people  and  for  humanity,  is  illustrated  by  the 


136  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH     LITERATURE 

following  testimonial  signed  by  several  hundred 
Jewish  women,  presented  to  her  when  she  was  about 
to  leave  England: 

"  Dearest  Sister — Our  admiration  of  your  talents, 
our  veneration  for  your  character,  our  gratitude  for 
the  eminent  services  your  writings  render  our  sex, 
our  people,  our  faith,  in  which  the  sacred  cause  of 
true  religion  is  embodied:  all  these  motives  combine 
to  induce  us  to  intrude  on  your  presence,  in  order 
to  give  utterance  to  sentiments  which  we  are  happy 
to  feel  and  delighted  to  express.  Until  you  arose, 
it  has,  in  modern  times,  never  been  the  case  that  a 
Woman  in  Israel  should  stand  forth  the  public  ad- 
vocate of  the  faith  of  Israel;  that  with  the  depth  and 
purity  of  feelings  which  is  the  treasure  of  woman, 
and  with  the  strength  of  mind  and  extensive  know- 
ledge that  form  the  pride  of  man,  she  should  call  on 
her  own  to  cherish,  on  others  to  respect,  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Israel. 

"  You,  dearest  Sister,  have  done  this,  and  more. 
You  have  taught  us  to  know  and  appreciate  our  dig- 
nity; to  feel  and  to  prove  that  no  female  character 
can  be  ...  more  pure  than  that  of  the  Jewish 
maiden,  none  more  pious  than  that  of  the  woman 
in  Israel.  You  have  vindicated  our  social  and  spir- 
itual equality  with  our  brethren  in  the  faith:  you 
have,  by  your  own  excellent  example,  triumphantly 
refuted  the  aspersion,  that  the  Jewish  religion  leaves 
unmoved  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  woman.  Your 
writings  place  within  our  reach  those  higher  mo- 
tives, those  holier  consolations,  which  flow  from  the 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  137 

spirituality  of  our  religion,  which  urge  the  soul  to 
commune  with  its  Maker  and  direct  it  to  His  grace 
and  His  mercy  as  the  best  guide  and  protector  here 
and  hereafter.  .  .  ." 

Her  example  fell  like  seed  upon  fertile^  soil,  for 
Abigail  Lindo,  Marian  Hartog,  Annette  Salomon, 
and  especially  Anna  Maria  Goldsmid,  a  writer  of 
merit,  daughter  of  the  well-known  Sir  Isaac  Lyon 
Goldsmid,  may  be  considered  her  disciples,  the  fruit 
of  her  sowing. 

The  Italian  poetess,  Rachel  Morpurgo,  a  worthy 
successor  of  Deborah  Ascarelli  and  Sara  Copia 
Sullam,  was  contemporaneous  with  Grace  Aguilar, 
though  her  senior  by  twenty-six  years.  Our  in- 
terest in  her  is  heightened  by  her  use  of  the  Hebrew 
language,  which  she  handled  with  such  consummate 
skill  that  her  writings  easily  take  rank  with  the  best 
of  neo-Hebraic  literature.  A  niece  of  the  famous 
scholar  S.  D.  Luzzatto,  she  was  born  at  Triest, 
April  8,  1790.  Until  the  age  of  twelve  she  studied 
the  Bible,  then  she  read  BechaPs  "Duties  of  the 
Heart "  and  Rashi's  commentary,  and  from  her 
fourteenth  to  her  sixteenth  year  she  devoted  herself 
to  the  Talmud  and  the  Zohar — a  remarkable  course 
of  study,  pursued,  too,  in  despite  of  adverse  circum- 
stances. At  the  same  time  she  was  taught  the  tur- 
ner's art  by  Luzzatto's  father,  and  later  she  learned 
tailoring.  One  of  her  poems  having  been  published 
without  her  knowledge,  she  gives  vent  to  her  regret 
in  a  sonnet: 


138  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH     LITERATURE 

"My  soul  surcharged  with  grief  now  loud  complains, 

And  fears  upon  my  spirit  heavily  weigh. 

'  Thy  poem  we  have  heard,'  the  people  say, 
'  Who  like  to  thee  can  sing  melodious  strains  ? ' 
'  They're  naught  but  sparks,'  outspeaks  my  soul  in  chains, 

'  Struck  from  my  life  by  torture  every  day. 

But  now  all  perfume's  fled — no  more  my  lay 
Shall  rise  ;  for,  fear  of  shame  my  song  restrains.' 

A  woman's  fancies  lightly  roam,  and  weave 

Themselves  into  a  fairy  web.     Should  I 

Refrain  ?     Ah  !  soon  enough  this  pleasure,  too, 

Will  flee  !     Verily  I  cannot  conceive 

Why  I'm  extolled.     For  woman  'tis  to  ply 

The  spinning  wrheel — then  to  herself  she's  true." 

This  painful  self-consciousness,  coupled  with  the 
oppression  of  material  cares,  forms  the  sad  refrain 
of  Rachel  Morpurgo's  writings.  She  is  a  true  poet- 
ess: the  woes  of  humanity  are  reflected  in  her  own 
sorrows,  to  which  she  gave  utterance  in  soulful 
tones.  She,  too,  became  an  exemplar  for  a  number 
of  young  women.  A  Pole,  Yenta  Wohllerner,  like 
Rachel  Morpurgo,  had  to  propitiate  churlish  cir- 
cumstances before  she  could  publish  the  gifts  of  her 
muse,  and  Miriam  Mosessohn,  Bertha  Rabbinowicz, 
and  others,  emulated  her  masterly  handling  of  the 
Hebrew  language. 

The  opening  of  the  new  era  was  marked  by  the 
appearance  of  a  triad  of  Jewesses — Grace  Aguilar 
in  England,  Rachel  Morpurgo  in  Italy,  and  Henri- 
ette  Ottenheimer  in  Germany.  A  native  of  the 
blessed  land  of  Suabia,  Henrictte  Ottenheimer  was 
consecrated  to  poetry  by  intercourse  with  two  mas- 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  139 

ters  of  song — Uhland  and  Riickert.  Her  poems, 
fragrant  blossoms  plucked  on  Suabian  fields,  for 
the  most  part  are  no  more  than  sweet  womanly 
lyrics,  growing  strong  with  the  force  of  enthusiasm 
only  when  she  dwells  upon  her  people's  sacred  mis- 
sion and  the  heroes  of  Bible  days. 

Women  like  these  renew  the  olden  fame  of  the 
Jewess,  and  add  achievements  to  her  brilliant  record. 
As  for  their  successors  and  imitators,  our  contem- 
poraries, whose  literary  productions  are  before  us, 
on  them  we  may  not  yet  pass  judgment;  their  work 
is  still  on  probation. 

One  striking  circumstance  in  connection  with 
their  activity  should  be  pointed  out,  because  it  goes 
to  prove  the  soundness  of  judgment,  the  penetra- 
tion, and  expansiveness  characteristic  of  Jews.  While 
the  movement  for  woman's  complete  emancipation 
has  counted  not  a  single  Jewess  among  its  promot- 
ers, its  more  legitimate  successor,  the  movement  to 
establish  woman's  right  and  ability  to  earn  a  liveli- 
hood in  any  branch  of  human  endeavor — a  right 
and  ability  denied  only  by  prejudice,  or  stupidity- 
was  headed  and  zealously  supported  by  Jewesses, 
an  assertion  which  can  readily  be  proved  by  such 
names  as  Lina  Morgenstern,  known  to  the  public 
also  as  an  advocate  of  moderate  religious  reforms, 
Jenny  Hirsch,  Henriette  Goldschmidt,  and  a  num- 
ber of  writers  on  subjects  of  general  and  Jewish  in- 
terest, such  as  Rachel  Meyer,  Elise  Levi  (Henle), 
Ulla  Frank-Wolff,  Johanna  Goldschmidt,  Caroline 
Deutsch,  in  Germany;  Rebekah  Eugenie  Foa,  Juli- 


I4O  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

anna  and  Pauline  Bloch,  in  France;  Estelle  and 
Maria  Hertzveld,  in  Holland,  and  Emma  Lazarus, 
in  America. 

One  other  name  should  be  recorded.  Fanny  Neu- 
da,  the  writer  of  "  Hours  of  Devotion,"  and  a  num- 
ber of  juvenile  stories,  has  a  double  claim  upon  our 
recognition,  inasmuch  as  she  is  an  authoress  of  the 
Jewish  race  who  has  addressed  her  writings  exclu- 
sively to  Jewish  women. 

We  have  followed  Jewish  women  from  the  days 
of  their  first  flight  into  the  realm  of  song  through  a 
period  of  two  thousand  years  up  to  modern  times, 
when  our  record  would  seem  to  come  to  a  natural 
conclusion.  But  I  deem  it  proper  to  bring  to  your 
attention  a  set  of  circumstances  which  would  be 
called  phenomenal,  were  it  not,  as  \ve  all  know,  that 
the  greatest  of  all  wonders  is  that  true  wonders  are 
so  common. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact,  spread  by  literary  journals, 
that  the  Rothschild  family,  conspicuous  for  financial 
ability,  has  produced  a  goodly  number  of  author- 
esses. But  it  is  less  wrell  known,  and  much  more 
noteworthy,  that  many  of  the  excellent  women  of 
this  family  have  devoted  their  literary  gifts  and  at- 
tainments to  the  service  of  Judaism.  The  palaces  of 
the  Rothschilds,  the  richest  family  in  the  world, 
harbor  many  a  warm  heart,  whose  pulsations  are 
quickened  by  the  thought  of  Israel's  history  and 
poetic  heritage.  Wealth  has  not  abated  a  jot  of 
their  enthusiasm  and  loyal  love  for  the  faith.  The 
first  of  the  house  of  Rothschild  to  make  a  name  for 


WOMEN     IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  14! 

herself  as  an  authoress  was  Lady  Charlotte  Roth- 
schild, in  London,  one  of  the  noblest  women  of  our 
time,  who,  standing  in  the  glare  of  prosperity,  did 
not  disdain  to  take  up  the  cudgels  in  defense  of  her 
people,  to  go  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  to  her  poor, 
unfortunate  sisters  in  faith,  and  expound  to  them, 
in  the  school  established  by  her  generosity,  the  na- 
ture and  duties  of  a  moral,  religious  life,  in  lectures 
pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  truth  and  faith.  Two 
volumes  of  these  addresses  have  been  published  in 
German  and  English  (1864  and  1869),  and  every 
page  gives  evidence  of  rare  piety,  considerable 
scholarship,  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and 
a  high  degree  of  culture.  Equal  enthusiasm  for 
Judaism  pervades  the  two  volumes  of  "Thoughts 
Suggested  by  Bible  Texts"  (1859),  by  Baroness 
Louise,  another  of  the  English  Rothschilds. 

Three  young  women  of  this  house,  in  which 
wealth  is  not  hostile  to  idealism,  have  distinguished 
themselves  as  writers,  foremost  among  them  Clem- 
entine Rothschild,  a  gentle,  sweet  maiden,  claimed 
by  death  before  life  with  its  storms  could  rob  her 
of  the  pure  ideals  of  youth.  She  died  in  her  twen- 
tieth year,  and  her  legacy  to  her  family  and  her 
faith  is  contained  in  "  Letters  to  a  Christian  Friend 
on  the  Fundamental  Truths  of  Judaism,"  abund- 
antly worthy  of  the  perusal  of  all  women,  regardless 
of  creed.  This  young  woman  displayed  more  cour- 
age, more  enthusiasm,  more  wit,  to  be  sure  also 
more  precise  knowledge  of  Judaism,  than  thousands 
of  men  of  our  time,  young  and  old,  who  fancy  gran- 


142  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE 

diloquent  periods  sufficient  to  solve  the  great  re- 
ligious problems  perplexing  mankind. 

Finally,  mention  must  be  made  of  Constance  and 
Anna  de  Rothschild,  whose  two  volume  "  History 
and  Literature  of  the  Israelites "  (1872)  created  a 
veritable  sensation,  and  awakened  the  literary  world 
to  the  fact  that  the  Rothschild  family  is  distin- 
guished not  only  for  wealth,  but  also  for  the  talent 
and  religious  zeal  of  its  authoresses. 

I  have  ventured  to  group  these  women  of  the 
Rothschild  family  together  as  a  conclusion  to  the 
history  of  Jewish  women  in  literature,  because  I  take 
their  work  to  be  an  earnest  of  future  accomplish- 
ment. Such  examples  cannot  fail  to  kindle  the  spark 
of  enthusiasm  slumbering  in  the  hearts  of  Jewish 
women,  and  the  sacred  flame  of  religious  zeal, 
tended  once  more  by  women,  will  leap  from  rank 
to  rank  in  the  Jewish  army.  As  it  is,  a  half-century 
has  brought  about  a  remarkable  change  in  feeling 
towards  Judaism.  Fifty  years  ago  the  following 
lines  by  Caroline  Deutsch,  one  of  the  above-men- 
tioned modern  German  writers,  could  not  have 
awakened  the  same  responsive  chord  as  now: 

"  Little  cruet  in  the  Temple 

That  didst  feed  the  sacrificial  flame, 
What  a  true  expressive  symbol 

Art  thou  of  my  race,  of  Israel's  fame  ! 
Thou  for  days  the  oil  didst  furnish 

To  illume  the  Temple  won  from  foe — 
So  for  centuries  in  my  people 

Spirit  of  resistance  ne'er  burnt  low. 


WOMEN    IN    JEWISH    LITERATURE  143 

It  was  cast  from  home  and  country, 

Gloom  and  sorrow  were  its  daily  lot; 
Yet  the  torch  of  faith  gleamed  steady, 

Courage,  like  thy  oil,  forsook  it  not. 
Mocks  and  jeers  were  all  its  portion, 

Death  assailed  it  in  ten  thousand  forms — 
Yet  this  people  never  faltered, 

Hope,  its  beacon,  led  it  through  all  storms. 
Poorer  than  dumb,  driven  cattle, 

It  went  forth  enslaved  from  its  estate, 
All  its  footsore  wand 'rings  lighted 

By  its  consciousness  of  worth  innate. 
Luckless  fortunes  could  not  bend  it ; 

Unjust  laws  increased  its  wondrous  faith ; 
From  its  heart  exhaustless  streaming, 

Freedom's  light  shone  on  its  thorny  path. 
Oil  that  burnt  in  olden  Temple, 

Eight  days  only  didst  thou  give  forth  light ! 
Oil  of  faith  sustained  this  people 

Through  the  centuries  of  darkest  night !  " 

We  can  afford  to  look  forward  to  the  future  of 
Judaism  serenely.  The  signs  of  the  times  seem  pro- 
pitious to  him  whose  eye  is  clear  to  read  them, 
whose  heart  not  too  embittered  to  understand  their 
message  aright. 

Our  rough  and  tumble  time,  delighting  in  nega- 
tion and  destruction,  crushing  underfoot  the  tender 
blossoms  of  poetry  and  faith,  living  up  to  its  quasi 
motto,  "  What  will  not  die  of  itself,  must  be  put  to 
death,"  will  suddenly  come  to  a  stop  in  its  mad  ca- 
reer of  annihilation.  That  will  mark  the  dawn  of  a 
new  era,  the  first  stirrings  of  a  new  spring-tide  for 
storm-driven  Israel.  On  the  ruins  will  rise  the  Jew- 


144  WOMEN    IN    JEWISH     LITERATURE 

ish  home,  based  on  Israel's  world-saving  conception 
of  family  life,  which,  having  enlightened  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  will  return  to  the  source  whence  it  first 
issued.  Built  on  this  foundation,  and  resting  on  the 
pillars  of  modern  culture,  Jewish  spirit,  and  true 
morality,  the  Jewish  home  wiH  once  more  invite  the 
nations  to  exclaim :  "  How  beautiful  are  thy  tents, 
O  Jacob,  thy  dwellings,  O  Israel  !'' 

May  the  soft  starlight  of  woman's  high  ideals  con- 
tinue to  gleam  on  the  thorny  path  of  the  thinker  Is- 
rael; may  they  never  depart  from  Israel,  those  God- 
kissed  women  that  draw  inspiration  at  the  sacred 
fount  of  poesy,  and  are  consecrated  by  its  limpid 
waters  to  give  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  .Him  that 
reigns  on  high;  may  the  poefs  words  ever  remain 
applicable  to  the  matrons  and  maidens  of  Israel  i1 

"  Pure  woman  stands  in  life's  turmoil 

A  rose  in  leafy  bower  ; 

Her  aspirations  and  her  toil 

Are  tinted  like  a  flower. 

Her  thoughts  are  pious,  kind,  and  true, 

In  evil  have  no  part ; 
A  glimpse  of  empyrean  blue 

Is  seen  within  her  heart." 

1  By  Julius  Rodenberg. 


MOSES  MAIMONIDES 

"Who  is  Maimonides?  For  my  part,  I  confess 
that  I  have  merely  heard  the  name."  This  naive 
admission  was  not  long  since  made  by  a  well-known 
French  writer  in  discussing  the  subject  of  a  prize- 
essay,  "  Upon  the  Philosophy  of  Maimonides,"  an- 
nounced by  the  academic  universitaire  of  Paris. 
What  short  memories  the  French  have  for  the  names 
of  foreign  scholars!  When  the  proposed  subject 
was  submitted  to  the  French  minister  of  instruction, 
he  probably  asked  himself  the  same  question;  but 
he  was  not  at  a  loss  for  an  answer;  he  simply  sub- 
stituted Spinoza  for  Maimonides.  To  be  sure, 
Spinoza's  philosophy  is  somewhat  better  known  than 
that  of  Maimonides.  But  why  should  a  minister  of 
instruction  take  that  into  consideration?  The  min- 
ister and  the  author — both  presumably  over  twenty- 
five  years  of  age — might  have  heard  this  very  ques- 
tion propounded  and  answered  some  years  before. 
They  might  have  known  that  their  colleague  Victor 
Cousin,  to  save  Descartes  from  the  disgrace  of  hav- 
ing stood  sponsor  to  Spinozism,  had  established  a 
far-fetched  connection  between  the  Dutch  philoso- 
pher and  the  Spanish,  pronouncing  Spinoza  the 
devoted  disciple  of  Maimonides.  Perhaps  they 
might  have  been  expected  to  know,  too,  that  Solo- 
es 


146  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

mon  Munk,  through  his  French  translation  of 
Maimonides'  last  work,  had  made  it  possible  for 
modern  thinkers  to  approach  the  Jewish  philoso- 
pher, and  that  soon  after  this  translation  was  pub- 
lished, E.  Saisset  had  written  an  article  upon  Jewish 
philosophy  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  in  which 
he  gave  a  popular  and  detailed  exposition  of  Maim- 
onides' religious  views.  All  this  they  did  not  know, 
and,  had  they  known  it,  they  surely  would  not  have 
been  so  candid  as  the  German  thinker,  Heinrich 
Ritter,  who,  in  his  "  History  of  Christian  Philoso- 
phy," frankly  admits :  "  My  impression  was  that 
mediaeval  philosophy  was  not  indebted  to  Jewish 
metaphysicians  for  any  original  line  of  thought,  but 
M.  Munk's  discovery  convinced  me  of  my  mistake."1 

Who  was  Maimonides?  The  question  is  certainly 
more  justifiable  upon  German  than  upon  French 
soil.  In  France,  attention  has  been  invited  to  his 
works,  while  in  Germany,  save  in  the  circle  of  the 
learned,  he  is  almost  unknown.  Even  among  Jews, 
who  call  him  "  Rambam,"  he  is  celebrated  rather 
than  known.  It  seems,  then,  that  it  may  not  be 
unprofitable  to  present  an  outline  of  the  life  and 
works  of  this  philosopher  of  the  middle  ages,  whom 
scholars  have  sought  to  connect  with  Spinoza,  with 
Leibnitz,  and  even  with  Kant2 

While  readers  in  general  possess  but  little  infor- 
mation about  Maimonides  himself,  the  period  in 

1  Ritter,    GeschichU    der  christlichcn  Philosophie,  Vol.   I.,  p. 
610  ff. 

2  Joel,  Beitrage  ?ur  GeschichU  der  Philosophie,  Vol.  II.,  p.  9. 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  l^J 

which  he  lived,  and  which  derives  much  of  its  bril- 
liancy and  importance  from  him,  is  well  known,  and 
has  come  to  be  a  favorite  subject  with  modern 
writers.  That  period  was  a  very  dreamland  of  cul- 1  / 
ture.  Under  enlightened  caliphs,  the  Arabs  in  (/ 
Spain  developed  a  civilization  which,  during  the 
whole  of  the  middle  ages  up  to  the  Renaissance,  ex- 
ercised pregnant  influence  upon  every  department  of 
human  knowledge.  A  dreamland,  in  truth,  it  ap- 
pears to  be,  when  we  reflect  that  the  descendants  of 
a  highly  cultured  people,  the  teachers  of  Europe  in 
many  sciences,  are  now  wandering  in  African  wilds, 
nomads,  who  know  of  the  glories  of  their  past  only 
through  a  confused  legend,  holding  out  to  them  the 
extravagant  hope  that  the  banner  of  the  Prophet 
may  again  wave  from  the  cathedral  of  Granada, 
Yet  this  Spanish-Arabic  period  bequeathed  to  us 
such  magnificent  tokens  of  architectural  skill,  of 
scientific  research,  and  of  philosophic  thought,  that 
far  from  regarding  it  as  fancy's  dream,  we  know  it 
to  be  one  of  the  corner-stones  of  civilization. 

Prominent  among  the  great  men  of  this  period 
was  the  Jew  Moses  ben  Maimon,  or  as  he  was 
called  in  Arabic,  Abu  Amran  Musa  ibn  Maimun 
Obaid  Allah  (1135-1204).  It  may  be  said  that  he 
represented  the  full  measure  of  the  scientific  attain- 
ments of  the  age  at  the  close  of  which  he  stood— 
an  age  whose  culture  comprised  the  whole  circle  of 
sciences  then  known,  and  whose  conscious  goal  was 
the  reconciliation  of  religion  and  philosophy.  The 
sturdier  the  growth  of  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  the  more 


148  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

ardent  became  the  longing  to  reach  this  goal,  the 
keener  became  the  perception  of  the  problems  of 
life  and  faith.  Arabic  and  Jewish  thinkers  zealously 
sought  the  path  leading  to  serenity.  Though  they 
never  entered  upon  it,  their  tentative  efforts  natur- 
ally prepared  the  way  for  a  great  comprehen- 
sive intellect.  Only  a  genius,  master  of  all  the 
sciences,  combining  soundness  of  judgment  and 
clearness  of  insight  with  great  mental  vigor  and 
depth,  can  succeed  in  reconciling  the  divergent  prin- 
ciples of  theology  and  speculation,  if  such  reconcili- 
ation be  within  the  range  of  the  possible.  At  Cor- 
dova, in  1135,  when  the  sun  of  Arabic  culture 
reached  its  zenith,  was  born  Maimonides,  the  man 
gifted  with  this  all-embracing  mind. 

Many  incidents  in  his  life,  not  less  interesting  than 
his  philosophic  development,  have  come  down  to  us. 
His  father  was  his  first  teacher.  To  escape  the  per- 
secutions of  the  Almohades,  Maimonides,  then  thir- 
teen years  old,  removed  to  Fez  with  his  family. 
There  religious  persecution  forced  Jews  to  abjure 
their  faith,  and  the  family  of  Maimon,  like  many 
others,  had  to  comply,  outwardly  at  least,  with  the 
requirements  of  Islam.  At  Fez  Maimonides  was 
on  intimate  terms  with  physicians  and  philosophers. 
At  the  same  time,  both  in  personal  intercourse  with 
them  and  in  his  writings,  he  exhorted  his  pseudo- 
Mohamniedan  brethren  to  remain  true  to  Jadaisrn. 
This  would  have  cost  him  his  life,  had  he  not  been 
rescued  by  the  kindly  offices  of  Mohammedan  theo- 
logians. The  feeling  of  insecurity  induced  his 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  149 

family  to  leave  Fez  and  join  the  Jewish  community 
in  Palestine.  "  They  embarked  at  dead  of  night. 
On  the  sixth  day  of  their  voyage  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean, a  frightful  storm  arose;  mountainous  waves 
tossed  the  frail  ship  about  like  a  ball;  shipwreck 
seemed  imminent.  The  pious  family  besought  God's 
protection.  Maimonides  vowed  that  if  he  were  res- 
cued from  threatening  death,  he  would,  as  a  thank- 
offering  for  himself  and  his  family,  spend  two 
days  in  fasting  and  distributing  alms,  and  devote 
another  day  to  solitary  communion  with  God.  The 
storm  abated,  and  after  a  month's  voyage,  the  vessel 
ran  into  the  harbor  of  Accho."1  The  travellers  met 
with  a  warm  welcome,  but  they  tarried  only  a  brief 
while,  and  finally  settled  permanently  in  Egypt 
There,  too,  disasters  befell  Maimonides,  who  found 
solace  only  in  his  implicit  reliance  on  God  and  his 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  learning.  It  was  then  that 
Maimonides  became  the  religious  guide  of  his  breth- 
ren. At  the  same  time  he  attained  to  eminence  in 
his  medical  practice,  and  devoted  himself  zealously 
to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  the  natural  sciences. 
Yet  he  did  not  escape  calumny,  and  until  1185  for- 
tune refused  to  smile  upon  him.  In  that  year  a  son, 
afterwards  the  joy  and  pride  of  his  heart,  was  born 
to  him.  Then  he  was  appointed  physician  at  the 
court  of  Saladin,  and  so  great  was  his  reputation 
that  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  wished  to  make  him 
his  physician  in  ordinary,  but  Maimonides  refused 
the  offer.  Despite  the  fact  that  his  works  raised 

'Graetz,  Ge schichte  der  Juden,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  2987. 


I5O  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

many  enemies  against  him,  his  influence  grew  in 
the  congregations  of  his  town  and  province.  From 
all  sides  questions  were  addressed  to  him,  and 
when  religious  points  were  under  debate,  his 
opinion  usually  decided  the  issue.  At  his  death 
at  the  age  of  seventy  great  mourning  prevailed  in 
Israel.  His  mortal  remains  were  moved  to  Tibe- 
rias, and  a  legend  reports  that  Bedouins  attacked 
the  funeral  train.  Finding  it  impossible  to  move 
the  coffin  from  the  spot,  they  joined  the  Jews,  and 
followed  the  great  man  to  his  last  resting-place. 
The  deep  reverence  accorded  him  both  by  the 
moral  sense  and  the  exuberant  fancy  of  his  race  is 
best  expressed  in  the  brief  eulogy  of  the  saying,  now 
become  almost  a  proverb:  "From  Moses,  the 
Prophet,  to  Moses  ben  Maimon,  there  appeared 
none  like  unto  Moses." 

In  three  different  spheres  Maimonides'  work  pro- 
duced important  results.  First  in  order  stand  his 
services  to  his  fellow-believers.  For  them  he  com- 
piled the  great  Codex,  the  first  systematic  arrange- 
ment, upon  the  basis  of  Talmudic  tradition,  of  all 
the  ordinances  and  tenets  of  Judaism.  He  gave 
them  a  system  of  ethics  which  even  now  should  be 
prized,  because  it  inculcates  the  highest  possible 
ethical  views  and  the  most  ideal  conception  of  man's 
duties  in  life.  He  explained  to  them,  almost  seven 
hundred  years  ago,  Islam's  service  to  mankind,  and 
the  mission  Christianity  was  appointed  by  Provi- 
dence to  accomplish. 

His  early  writings  reveal  the  fundamental  prin- 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  15! 

ciples  of  his  subsequent  literary  work.  An  astro- 
nomical treatise  on  the  Jewish  calendar,  written  in 
his  early  youth,  illustrates  his  love  of  system,  but  his 
peculiar  method  of  thinking  and  working  is  best 
shown  in  the  two  works  that  followed.  The  first  is 
a  commentary  on  parts  of  the  Talmud,  probably 
meant  to  present  such  conclusions  of  the  Baby- 
lonian and  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  as  affect  the  prac- 
tices of  Judaism.  The  second  is  his  Arabic  com- 
mentary on  the  Mishna.  He  explains  the  Mishna 
simply  and  clearly  from  a  strictly  rabbinical  point 
of  view — a  point  of  view  which  he  never  relin- 
quished, permitting  a  deviation  only  in  questions 
not  affecting  conduct.  Master  of  the  abundant 
material  of  Jewish  literature,  he  felt  it  to  be  one  of 
the  most  important  tasks  of  the  age  to  simplify,  by 
methodical  treatment,  the  study  of  the  mass  of 
written  and  traditional  religious  laws,  accumulated 
in  the  course  of  centuries.  It  is  this  work  that  con- 
tains the  attempt,  praised  by  some,  condemned  by 
others,  to  establish  articles  of  the  Jewish  faith,  the 
Bible  being  used  in  authentication.  Thirteen  ar- 
ticles of  faith  were  thus  established.  The  first  five 
naturally  define  the  God-idea:  Article  i  declares  the 
existence  of  God,  2,  His  unity,  3,  His  immateriality, 
4,  His  eternity,  5,  that  unto  Him  alone,  to  whom  all 
created  life  owes  its  being,  human  adoration  is  due; 
the  next  four  treat  of  revelation:  6,  of  revelations 
made  through  prophets  in  general,  7,  of  the  revela- 
tion made  through  Moses,  8,  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Law,  9,  of  the  perfection  of  the  Law,  and  its 


152  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

eternally  binding  force;  and  the  rest  dwell  upon  the 
divine  government  of  the  world:  10,  Divine  Provi- 
dence, n,  reward  and  punishment,  here  and  here- 
after, 12,  Messianic  promises  and  hopes,  and  13, 
resurrection. 

Maimonides'  high  reputation  among  his  own 
people  is  attested  by  his  letters  and  responses,  con- 
taining detailed  answers  to  vexed  religious  ques- 
tions. An  especially  valuable  letter  is  the  one  upon 
"  Enforced  Apostasy/1  Iggereth  ha-Stimad.  He 
advises  an  inquirer  what  to  do  when  menaced 
by  religious  persecutions.  Is  one  to  save  life  by 
accepting,  or  to  court  death  by  refusing  to  embrace, 
the  Mohammedan  faith?  Maimonides'  opinion  is 
summed  up  in  the  words :  "  The  solution  which  I 
always  recommend  to  my  friends  and  those  consult- 
ing me  is,  to  leave  such  regions,  and  to  turn  to  a 
place  in  which  religion  can  be  practiced  without 
fear  of  persecution.  No  considerations  of  danger, 
of  property,  or  of  family  should  prevent  one  from 
carrying  out  this  purpose.  The  divine  Law  stands 
in  higher  esteem  with  the  wise  than  the  haphazard 
gifts  of  fortune.  These  pass  away,  the  former  re- 
mains." His  responses  as  well  as  his  most  import- 
ant works  bear  the  impress  of  a  sane,  well-ordered 
mind,  of  a  lofty  intellect,  dwelling  only  upon  what  is 
truly  great. 

Also  his  second  famous  work,  the  above-mentioned 
Hebrew  Codex,  Mishneh  Torah,  "  Recapitulation  of 
the  Law,"  was  written  in  the  interest  of  his  brethren 
in  faith.  Its  fourteen  divisions  treat  of  knowledge, 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  153 

love,  the  festivals,  marriage  laws,  sanctifications, 
vows,  seeds,  Temple-service,  sacrifices,  purifications, 
damages,  purchase  and  sale,  courts,  and  judges. 
"  My  work  is  such,"  says  Maimonides,  "  that  my 
book  in  connection  with  the  Bible  will  enable  a 
student  to  dispense  with  the  Talmud."  From  what- 
ever point  of  view  this  work  may  be  regarded,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  Maimonides  carried  out  his 
plan  with  signal  success,  and  that  it  is  the  only  one 
by  which  method  could  have  been  introduced  into 
the  manifold  departments  of  Jewish  religious  lore. 
But  it  is  obvious  that  the  thinker  had  not  yet  reached 
the  goal  of  his  desires.  In  consonance  with  his  fun- 
damental principle,  a  scientific  systemization  of  re- 
ligious laws  had  to  be  followed  up  by  an  explanation 
of  revealed  religion  and  Greek-Arabic  philosophy, 
and  by  the  attempt  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation 
between  them. 

Before  we  enter  upon  this  his  greatest  book,  it  is 
well  to  dispose  of  the  second  phase  of  his  work,  his 
activity  as  a  medical  writer.  Maimonides  treated 
medicine  as  a  science,  a  view  not  usual  in  those  days. 
The  body  of  facts  relating  to  medicine  he  classified, 
as  he  had  systematized  the  religious  laws  of  the  Tal- 
mud. In  his  methodical  way,  he  also  edited  the 
writings  of  Galen,  the  medical  oracle  of  the  middle 
ages,  and  his  own  medical  aphorisms  and  treatises 
are  marked  by  the  same  love  of  system.  It  seems 
that  he  had  the  intention  to  prepare  a  medical  coclex 
to  serve  a  purpose  similar  to  that  of  his  religious 
code.  How  great  a  reputation  he  enjoyed  among 


154  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

Mohammedan  physicians  is  shown  by  the  extrava- 
gantly enthusiastic  verses  of  an  Arabic  poet: 

"  Of  body's  ills  doth  Galen's  art  relieve, 
Maimonides  cures  mind  and  body  both, — 
His  wisdom  heals  disease  and  ignorance. 
And  should  the  moon  invoke  his  skill  and  art, 
Her  spots,  when  full  her  orb,  would  disappear; 
He'd  fill  her  breach,  when  time  doth  inroads  make, 
And  cure  her,  too,  of  pallor  caused  by  earth." 

Maimonides'  real  greatness,  however,  must  be 
sought  in  his  philosophic  work.  Despite  the  wide 
gap  between  our  intellectual  attitude  and  the  philo- 
sophic views  to  which  Maimonides  gave  fullest  ex- 
pression, we  can  properly  appreciate  his  achieve- 
ments and  his  intellectual  grasp  by  judging  him  with 
reference  to  his  own  time.  When  we  realize  that  he 
absorbed  all  the  thought-currents  of  his  time,  that  he 
was  their  faithful  expounder,  and  that,  at  the  same 
time,  he  was  gifted  with  an  accurate,  historic  instinct, 
making  him  wholly  objective,  we  shall  recognize  in 
him  "  the  genius  of  his  peculiar  epoch  become  incar- 
nate." The  work  containing  Maimonides'  deepest 
thought  and  the  sum  of  his  knowledge  and  erudi- 
tion was  written  in  Arabic  under  the  name  Dalalat 
al-Hairin.  In  Hebrew  it  is  known  as  Moreh  Ncbu- 
chim,  in  Latin,  as  Doctor  Perplexorum,  and  in  Eng- 
lish as  the  "  Guide  of  the  Perplexed."  To  this  book 
we  shall  now  devote  our  attention.  The  original 
Arabic  text  was  supposed,  along  with  many  other 
literary  treasures  of  the  middle  ages,  to  be  lost,  until 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  155 

Solomon  Munk,  the  blind  savant  with  clear  vision, 
discovered  it  in  the  library  at  Paris,  and  published  it. 
But  in  its  Hebrew  translation  the  book  created  a 
stir,  which  subsided  only  with  its  public  burning  at 
Montpellier  early  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
Latin  translation  we  owe  to  Buxtorf ;  the  German  is, 
I  believe,  incomplete,  and  can  hardly  be  said  to  give 
evidence  of  ripe  scholarship.1 

The  question  that  naturally .  suggests  itself  is: 
What  does  the  book  contain?  Does  it  establish  a 
new  system  of  philosophy?  Is  it  a  cyclopaedia  of 
the  sciences,  such  as  the  Arab  schools  of  that  day 
were  wont  to  produce?  Neither  the  one  nor  the 
other.  The  "  Guide  of  the  Perplexed  "  is  a  system 
of  rational  theology  upon  a  philosophic  basis,  a 
book  not  intended  for  novices,  but  for  thinkers,  for 
such  minds  as  know  how  to  penetrate  the  profound 
meaning  of  tradition,  as  the  author  says  in  a  prefa- 
tory letter  addressed  to  Joseph  ibn  Aknin,  his  fav- 
orite disciple.  He  believes  that  even  those  to  whom 
the  book  appeals  are  often  puzzled  and  confused  by 
the  apparent  inconsistencies  between  the  literal  in- 
terpretation of  the  Bible  and  the  evidence  of  reason, 
that  they  do  not  know  whether  to  take  Scriptural 
expressions  as  symbolic  or  allegoric,  or  to  accept 
them  in  their  literal  meaning,  and  that  they  fall  a 
prey  to  doubt,  and  long  for  a  guide.  Maimonides 
is  prepared  to  lead  them  to  an  eminence  on  which 
religion  and  philosophy  meet  in  perfect  harmony. 

1  "  The  Guide  of  the  Perplexed,"  the  English  translation, 
consulted  in  this  work,  was  made  by  M.  Friedlander,  Ph.  D., 
(London,  Triibner  &  Co.,  1885).  [Tr.] 


156  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

Educated  in  the  school  of  Arabic  philosophers, 
notably  under  the  influence  of  Ibn  Sina  (Avicenna), 
Maimonides  paid  hero-worship  to  Aristotle,  the 
autocrat  of  the  middle  ages  in  the  realm  of  specula- 
tion. There  is  no  question  that  the  dominion 
wielded  by  the  Greek  philosopher  throughout  me- 
diaeval times,  and  the  influence  which  he  exercises 
even  now,  are  chiefly  attributable  to  the  Arabs,  and 
beside  them,  pre-eminently  to  Maimonides.  For 
him,  Aristotle  was  second  in  authority  only  to  the 
Bible.  A  rational  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  in  his 
opinion,  meant  its  interpretation  from  an  Aristote- 
lian point  of  view.  Still,  he  does  not  consider  Aris- 
totle other  than  a  thinker  like  himself,  not  by  any 
means  the  infallible  "organ  of  reason."  The  mo- 
ment he  discovers  that  a  peripatetic  principle  is  in 
direct  and  irreconcilable  conflict  with  his  religious 
convictions,  he  parts  company  with  it,  let  the  effort 
cost  what  it  may.  For,  above  all,  Maimonides  was 
a  faithful  Jew,  striving  to  reach  a  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  his  religion,  and  to  assign  to  theology  the 
place  in  his  estimation  belonging  to  it  in  the  realm 
of  science.  He  stands  forth  as  the  most  eminent 
intermediary  between  Greek-Arabic  thought  and 
Christian  scholasticism.  A  century  later,  the  most 
prominent  of  the  schoolmen  endeavored,  in  the  same 
way  as  Maimonides,  to  reconcile  divine  with  human 
wisdom  as  manifested  by  Aristotle.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  that  Maimonides  was  followed  by 
both  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  and 
that  the  new  aims  of  philosophy,  conceived  at  the 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  157 

beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  are,  in  part,  to 
be  traced  to  the  influence  of  "  Rabbi  Moses  of 
Egypt,"  as  Maimonides  was  called  by  the  first  of 
these  two  celebrated  doctors  of  the  Church. 

What  a  marvellous  picture  is  presented  by  the 
unfolding  of  the  Aristotelian  idea  in  its  passage 
through  the  ages!  And  one  of  the  most  attractive 
figures  on  the  canvas  is  Maimonides.  Let  us  see 
how  he  undertakes  to  guide  the  perplexed.  His 
path  is  marked  out  for  him  by  the  Bible.  Its  first 
few  verses  suffice  to  puzzle  the  believing  thinker. 
It  says :  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness."  What!  Is  this  expression  to  be  taken 
literally?  Impossible!  To  conceive  of  God  as  such 
that  a  being  can  be  made  in  His  image,  is  to  con- 
ceive of  Him  as  a  corporeal  substance.  But  God 
is  an  invisible,  immaterial  Intelligence.  Reason 
teaches  this,  and  the  sacred  Book  itself  prohibits 
image-worship.  On  this  point  Aristotle  and  the 
Bible  are  in  accord.  The  inference  is  that  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  there  are  many  metaphors  and 
words  with  a  double  or  allegoric  sense.  Such  is  the 
case  with  the  word  "  image."  It  has  two  meanings, 
the  one  usual  and  obvious,  the  other  figurative. 
Here  the  word  must  be  taken  in  its  figurative  sense. 
God  is  conceived  as  the  highest  Reason,  and  as 
reason  is  the  specific  attribute  which  characterizes 
the  human  mind,  it  follows  that  man,  by  virtue  of 
his  possession  of  reason,  resembles  God,  and  the 
more  fully  he  realizes  the  ideal  of  Reason,  the 
closer  does  he  approach  the  form  and  likeness  of 


158  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

God.  Such  is  Maimonides'  method  of  reasoning. 
He  does  not  build  up  a  new  system  of  philosophy, 
he  adopts  an  existing  system.  Beginning  with 
Bible  exegesis,  he  leads  us,  step  by  step,  up  to  the 
lofty  goal  at  which  philosophy  and  faith  are  linked 
in  perfect  harmony. 

The  arguments  for  the  existence,  unity,  and  incor- 
poreity  of  God  divide  the  Arabic  philosophers  into 
two  schools.  Maimonides  naturally  espoused  the 
view  permitting  the  most  exalted  conception  of 
God,  that  is,  the  conception  of  God  free  from  human 
attributes.  He  recognizes  none  but  negative  attri- 
butes; in  other  words,  he  defines  God  by  means  of 
negations  only.  For  instance,  asserting  that  the 
Supreme  Being  is  omniscient  or  omnipotent,  is  not 
investing  Him  with  a  positive  attribute,  it  is  simply 
denying  imperfection.  The  student  knows  that  in 
the  history  of  the  doctrine  of  attributes,  the  recogni- 
tion of  negative  attributes  marks  a  great  advance 
in  philosophic  reasoning.  Maimonides  holds  that 
the  conception  of  the  Deity  as  a  pure  abstraction  is 
the  only  one  truly  philosophic.  His  evidences  for 
the  existence,  the  immateriality,  and  the  unity  of 
God,  are  conceived  in  the  same  spirit.  In  offering 
them  he  follows  Aristotle's  reasoning  closely,  add- 
ing only  one  other  proof,  the  cosmological,  which 
he  took  from  his  teacher,  the  Arab  Avicenna.  He 
logically  reaches  this  proof  by  more  explicitly  defin- 
ing the  God-idea,  and,  at  the  same  time,  taking  into 
consideration  the  nature  of  the  world  of  things  and 
their  relation  to  one  another.  Acquainted  with 


MOSES    MAIMON1DES  159 

Ptolemy's  a  Almagest "  and  with  the  investigations 
of  the  Arabs,  he  naturally  surpasses  his  Greek  mas- 
ter in  astronomical  knowledge.  In  physical  science, 
however,  he  gives  undivided  allegiance  to  the  Aris- 
totelian theory  of  a  sublunary  and  a  celestial  world 
of  spheres,  the  former  composed  of  the  sublunary 
elements  in  constantly  shifting,  perishable  combina- 
tions, and  the  latter,  of  the  stable,  unchanging  fifth 
substance  (quintessence).  But  the  question,  how 
God  moves  these  spheres,  separates  Maimonides 
from  his  master.  His  own  answer  has  a  Neopla- 
tonic  ring.  He  holds,  with  Aristotle,  that  there  are 
as  many  separate  Intelligences  as  spheres.  Each 
sphere  is  supposed  to  aspire  to  the  Intelligence 
which  is  the  principle  of  its  motion.  The  Arabic 
thinkers  assumed  ten  such  independent  Intelli- 
gences, one  animating  each  of  the  nine  permanent 
spheres,  and  the  tenth,  called  the  "  Active  Intellect," 
influencing  the  sublunary  world  of  matter.  The 
existence  of  this  tenth  Intelligence  is  proved  by  the 
transition  of  our  own  intellect  from  possible  exist- 
ence to  actuality,  and  by  the  varying  forms  of  all 
transient  things,  whose  matter  at  one  time  existed 
only  in  a  potential  state.  Whenever  the  transition 
from  potentiality  to  actuality  occurs,  there  must  be 
a  cause.  Inasmuch  as  the  tenth  Intelligence  (Sechel 
Hapoel,  Active  Intellect)  induces  form,  it  must  itself 
be  form,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  source  of  intellect,  it 
is  itself  intellect.  This  is,  of  course,  obscure  to  us, 
but  we  must  remember  that  Maimonides  would  not 
have  so  charming  and  individual  a  personality, 


I6O  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

were  he  not  part  and  parcel  of  his  time  and  the  rep- 
resentative of  its  belief.  Maimonides,  having  for 
once  deviated  from  the  peripatetic  system,  ventures 
to  take  another  bold  step  away  from  it.  He  offers 
an  explanation,  different  from  Aristotle's,  of  the  cre- 
ation of  the  world.  The  latter  repudiated  the  cre- 
atio  ex  nihilo  (creation  out  of  nothing).  Like  mod- 
ern philosophers,  he  pre-supposed  the  existence  of 
an  eternal  "  First  substance  "  (materia  prima).  His 
Bible  does  not  permit  our  rabbi  to  avail  himself 
of  this  theory.  It  was  reserved  for  the  modern  in- 
vestigator to  demonstrate  how  the  Scriptural  word, 
with  some  little  manipulation,  can  be  so  twisted 
as  to  be  made  to  harmonize  with  the  theories 
of  natural  science.  But  to  such  trickery  the  pure- 
minded  guide  will  not  stoop.  Besides,  the  accept- 
ance of  Aristotle's  theory  would  rule  out  the  inter- 
vention of  miracles  in  the  conduct  of  the  world,  and 
that  Maimonides  does  not  care  to  renounce.  Right 
here  his  monotheistic  convictions  force  him  into 
direct  opposition  to  the  Greek  as  well  as  to  the 
Arabic  philosophers.  Upon  this  subject,  he  brooked 
neither  trifling  nor  compromise  with  reason.  It  is 
precisely  his  honesty  that  so  exalted  his  teachings, 
that  they  have  survived  the  lapse  of  centuries,  and 
maintain  a  place  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of  modern 
philosophic  thought. 

According  to  Maimonides,  man  has  absolute 
free-will,  and  God  is  absolutely  just.  Whatever 
good  befalls  man  is  reward,  all  his  evil  fortune, 
punishment.  What  Aristotle  attributes  to  chance, 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  l6l 

and  the  Mohammedan  philosophers  to  Divine  Will 
or  Divine  Wisdom,  our  rabbi  traces  to  the  merits  of 
man  as  its  cause.  He  does  not  admit  any  suffering 
to  be  unmerited,  or  that  God  ordains  trials  merely 
to  indemnify  the  sufferer  in  this  or  the  future  world. 
Man's  susceptibility  to  divine  influence  is  measured 
by  his  intellectual  endowment.  Through  his  "  intel- 
lect," he  is  directly  connected  with  the  "  Active  In- 
tellect," and  thus  secures  the  grace  of  God,  who 
embraces  the  infinite.  Such  views  naturally  lead  to 
a  conception  of  life  in  consonance  with  the  purest 
ideals  of  morality,  and  they  are  the  goal  to  which 
the  "  Guide  "  leads  the  perplexed.  He  teaches  that 
the  acquiring  of  high  intellectual  power,  and  the 
"  possession  of  such  notions  as  lead  to  true  metaphy- 
sical opinions  "  about  God,  are  "  man's  final  object," 
and  they  constitute  true  human  perfection.  This  it 
is  that  "  gives  him  immortality,"  and  confers  upon 
him  the  dignity  of  manhood. 

The  highest  degree  of  perfection,  according  to 
Maimonides,  is  reached  by  him  who  devotes  all  his 
thoughts  and  actions  to  perfecting  himself  in  divine 
matters,  and  this  highest  degree  he  calls  prophecy. 
He  is  probably  the  first  philosopher  to  offer  so 
rationalistic  an  explanation,  and,  on  that  account,  it 
merits  our  attention.  What  had  previously  been 
regarded  as  supernatural  inspiration,  the  "  Guide " 
reduces  to  a  psychological  theory.  "  Prophecy," 
he  says,  "  is,  in  truth  and  reality,  an  emanation  sent 
forth  by  the  Divine  Being  through  the  medium  of 
the  Active  Intellect,  in  the  first  instance  to  man's 


l62  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

rational  faculty,  and  then  to  his  imaginative  faculty; 
it  is  the  highest  degree  ...  of  perfection  man 
can  attain;  it  consists  in  the  most  perfect  develop- 
ment of  the  imaginative  faculty."  Maimonides  dis- 
tinguishes eleven  degrees  of  inspiration,  and  three 
essential  conditions  of  prophecy:  I.  Perfection  of 
the  natural  constitution  of  the  imaginative  faculty, 
2.  mental  perfection,  which  may  partially  be  ac- 
quired by  training,  and  3.  moral  perfection.  Moses 
arrived  at  the  highest  degree  of  prophecy,  because 
he  understood  the  knowledge  communicated  to 
him  without  the  medium  of  the  imaginative  faculty. 
This  spiritual  height  having  been  scaled,  the 
"  Guide  "  needs  but  to  take  a  step  to  reach  revela- 
tion, in  his  estimation  also  an  intellectual  process: 
man's  intellect  rises  to  the  Supreme  Being. 

In  the  third  part  of  his  work,  Maimonides  en- 
deavors to  reconcile  the  conclusions  of  philosophy 
with  biblical  laws  and  Talmudical  traditions.  His 
method  is  both  original  and  valuable;  indeed,  this 
deserves  to  be  considered  the  most  important  part 
of  his  work.  Detailed  exposition  of  his  reasoning 
may  prove  irksome;  we  shall,  therefore,  consider  it 
as  briefly  as  possible. 

Maimonides  laid  down  one  rule  of  interpretation 
which,  almost  without  exception,  proves  applicable: 
The  words  of  Holy  Writ  express  different  sets  of 
ideas,  bearing  a  certain  relation  to  each  other,  the 
one  set  having  reference  to  physical,  the  other  to 
spiritual,  qualities.  By  applying  this  rule,  he  thinks 
that  nearly  all  discrepancies  between  the  literal  in- 


MOSES    MA1MON1DES  163 

terpretation  of  the  Bible  and  his  own  philosophic 
theories  disappear.  Having  passed  over  the  domain 
of  metaphysical  speculation,  he  finally  reaches  the 
consideration  of  the  practical  side  of  the  Bible,  that 
is  to  say,  the  Mosaic  legislation.  These  last  investi- 
gations of  his  are  attractive,  not  only  by  reason  of 
the  satisfactory  method  pursued,  but  chiefly  from 
the  fact  that  Maimonides,  divesting  himself  of  the 
conservatism  of  his  contemporaries,  ventures  to  in- 
quire into  the  reasons  of  biblical  laws.  For  many 
of  them,  he  assigns  local  and  historical  reasons; 
many,  he  thinks,  owe  their  origin  to  the  desire  to 
oppose  the  superstitious  practices  of  early  times  and 
of  the  Sabeans,  a  mythical,  primitive  race ;  but  all,  he 
contends,  are  binding,  and  with  this  solemn  assev- 
eration, he  puts  the  seal  upon  his  completed  work. 

When  Maimonides  characterized  the  "  Guide  of 
the  Perplexed  "  as  "  the  true  science  of  the  Bible," 
he  formed  a  just  estimate  of  his  own  work.  It  has 
come  to  be  the  substructure  of  a  rational  theology 
based  upon  speculation.  Maimonides  cannot  be 
said  to  have  been  very  much  ahead  of  his  own  age; 
but  it  is  altogether  certain  that  he  attained  the  acme 
of  the  possibilities  of  the  middle  ages.  In  many 
respects  there  is  a  striking  likeness  between  his  life 
and  work  and  those  of  the  Arabic  freethinker  Aver- 
roes,  whom  we  now  know  so  well  through  Ernest 
Renan.  While  the  Jewish  theologian  was  compos- 
ing his  great  work,  the  Arabic  philosopher  was  writ- 
ing his  "  Commentaries  on  Aristotle."  The  two 
had  similar  ends  in  view — the  one  to  enthrone  "  the 


164  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

Stagirite "  as  the  autocrat  of  philosophy  in  the 
Mosque,  the  other,  in  the  Synagogue.  We  have 
noted  the  fact  that,  some  centuries  later,  the  Church 
also  entered  the  federation  subject  to  Aristotelian 
rule.  Albertus  Magnus  uses  Maimonides,  Thomas 
Aquinas  joins  him,  and  upon  them  depend  the  other 
schoolmen.  Recent  inquirers  follow  in  their  train. 
Philosophy's  noblest  votary,  Benedict  Spinoza  him- 
self, is  influenced  by  Maimonides.  He  quotes  fre- 
quently and  at  great  length  the  finest  passages  of 
the  "  Guide."  Again,  Moses  Mendelssohn  built  his 
system  on  the  foundations  offered  by  Maimonides, 
and  an  acute  critic  assures  us  that,  in  certain  pas- 
sages, Kant's  religious  philosophy  breathes  the 
spirit  of  Maimonides.1 

The  "  Guide  of  the  Perplexed  "  did  not,  however, 
meet  with  so  gracious  a  reception  in  the  Synagogue. 
There,  Maimonides'  philosophic  system  conjured 
up  violent  storms.  The  whole  of  an  epoch,  that  fol- 
lowing Maimonides'  death,  was  absorbed  in  the  con- 
flict between  philosophy  and  tradition.  Controver- 
sial pamphlets  without  number  have  come  down  to 
us  from  those  days.  Enthusiasts  eulogized,  zealots 
decried.  Maimonides'  ambiguous  expressions  about 
bodily  resurrection,  seeming  to  indicate  that  he  did 
not  subscribe  to  the  article  of  the  creed  on  that  sub- 
ject, caused  particularly  acrimonious  polemics. 
Meir  ben  Todros  ha-Levi,  a  Talmudist  and  poet  of 
Toledo,  denounced  the  equivocation  in  the  following 
lines : 

'Joel,  /.  c. 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  165 

"  If  those  that  rise  from  death  again  must  die, 
For  lot  like  theirs  I  ne'er  should  long  and  sigh. 
If  graves  their  bones  shall  once  again  confine, 
I  hope  to  stay  where  first  they  bury  mine." 

Naturally,  Maimonides'  followers  were  quick  to 
retort  : 

"  His  name,  forsooth,  is  Mei'r  '  Shining.' 

How  false  !  since  light  he  holds  in  small  esteem. 
Our  language  always  contrast  loveth,  — 

the  name  of  ev'ning's  doubtful  gleam." 


Another  of  Maimonides'  opponents  was  the  phy- 
sician Judah  Alfachar,  who  bore  the  hereditary  title 
Prince.  The  following  pasquinade  is  attributed  to 
him: 

"Forgive,  O  Amram's  son,  nor  deem  it  crime, 

That  he,  deception's  master,  bears  thy  name. 
Nabi  we  call  the  prophet  of  truths  sublime, 

Like  him  of  Ba'al,  who  doth  the  truth  defame." 

Maimonides,  in  his  supposed  reply  to  the  Prince, 
played  upon  the  word  C/iamor,  the  Hebrew  word 
for  ass,  the  name  of  a  Hivite  prince  mentioned  in 
the  Bible: 

"  High  rank,  I  wot,  we  proudly  claim 

When  sprung  from  noble  ancestor  j 
Henceforth  my  mule  a  prince  I'll  name 
Since  once  a  prince  was  called  Chamor." 

It  seems  altogether  certain  that  this  polemic  rhym- 
ing is  the  fabrication  of  a  later  day,  for  we  know 
that  the  controversies  about  Maimonides'  opinions 


l66  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

in  Spain  and  Provence  broke  out  only  after  his 
death,  when  his  chief  work  had  spread  far  and 
wide  in  its  Hebrew  translation.  The  following 
stanza  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  in  northern 
France : 

"Be  silent,  « Guide,'  from  further  speech  refrain  ! 

Thus  truth  to  us  was  never  brought. 
Accursed  who  says  that  Holy  Writ's  a  trope, 
And  idle  dreams  what  prophets  taught." 

Whereupon  the  Provencals  returned: 

"  Thou  fool,  I  pray  thou  wilt  forbear, 

Nor  enter  on  this  consecrated  ground. 
Or  trope,  or  truth — or  vision  fair, 

Or  only  dream — for  thee  'tis  too  profound." 

The  homage  paid  to  Maimonides'  memory  in 
many  instances  produced  most  extravagant  poe- 
try. The  following  high-flown  lines,  outraging  the 
canons  of  good  taste  recognized  in  Hebrew  poetry, 
are  supposed  to  be  his  epitaph: 

"  Here  lies  a  man,  yet  not  a  man, 
And  if  a  man,  conceived  by  angels, 

By  human  mother  only  born  to  light; 
Perhaps  himself  a  spirit  pure — 
Not  child  1  y  man  and  woman  fostered — 
From  God  above  an  emanation  bright." 

Such  hyperbole  naturally  challenged  opposition, 
and  Maimonides'  opponents  did  not  hesitate  to  give 
voice  to  their  deep  indignation,  as  in  the  following: 


MOSES    MAIMONIDES  l/ 

"  Alas  !  that  man  should  dare 
To  say,  with  reckless  air, 

That  Holy  Scripture's  but  a  dream  of  night  ; 
That  all  we  read  therein 
Has  truly  never  been, 

Is  naught  but  sign  of  meaning  recondite. 
And  when  God's  wondrous  deeds 
The  haughty  scorner  reads, 

Contemptuous  he  cries,  'I  trust  my  sight.'  " 

A  cessation  of  hostilities  came  only  in  the  four- 
teenth century.  The  "  Guide  "  was  then  given  its 
due  meed  of  appreciation  by  the  Jews.  Later,  Mai- 
monides7  memory  was  held  in  unbounded  reverence, 
and  to-day  his  "  Guide  of  the  Perplexed "  is  a 
manual  of  religious  philosophy  treasured  by  Ju- 
daism. 

If  we  wish  once  more  before  parting  from  this 
earnest,  noble  thinker  to  review  his  work  and  atti- 
tude, we  can  best  do  it  by  applying  to  them  the  stan- 
dard furnished  by  his  own  reply  to  all  adverse  critics 
of  his  writings :  "  In  brief,  such  is  my  disposition. 
When  a  thought  fills  my  mind,  though  I  be  able  to 
express  it  so  that  only  a  single  man  among  ten 
thousand,  a  thinker,  is  satisfied  and  elevated  by  it, 
while  the  common  crowd  condemns  it  as  absurd,  I 
boldly  and  frankly  speak  the  word  that  enlightens 
the  wise,  never  fearing  the  censure  of  the  ignorant 
herd." 

This  was  Maimonides — he  of  pure  thought,  of 
noble  purpose ;  imbued  with  enthusiasm  for  his  faith, 
with  love  for  science;  ruled  by  the  loftiest  moral 
principles;  full  of  disinterested  love  and  the  milk  of 


l68  MOSES    MAIMONIDES 

human  kindness  in  his  intercourse  with  those  of 
other  faiths  and  other  views;  an  eagle-eyed  thinker, 
in  whom  were  focused  and  harmoniously  blended 
the  last  rays  of  the  declining  sun  of  Arabic-Jewish- 
Spanish  culture. 


JEWISH  TROUBADOURS  AND  MINNE- 
SINGERS 

A  great  tournament  at  the  court  of  Pedro  L! 
Deafening  fanfares  invite  courtiers  and  cavaliers  to 
participate  in  the  festivities.  In  the  brilliant  sun- 
shine gleam  the  lances  of  the  knights,  glitter  the 
spears  of  the  hidalgos.  Gallant  paladins  escort 
black-eyed  beauties  to  the  elevated  balcony,  on 
which,  upon  a  high-raised  throne,  under  a  gilded 
canopy,  surrounded  by  courtiers,  sit  Blanche  de 
Bourbon  and  her  illustrious  lord  Dom  Pedro,  with 
Dona  Maria  de  Padilla,  the  lady  of  his  choice,  at  his 
left.  Three  times  the  trumpets  have  sounded,  an- 
nouncing the  approach  of  the  troubadours  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  Castile  to  compete  with  one  another 
in  song.  Behold!  a  venerable  old  man,  with  silvery 
white  beard  flowing  down  upon  his  breast,  seeks  to 
extricate  himself  from  the  crowd.  With  admiring 
gaze  the  people  respectfully  make  way,  and  enthusi- 
astically greet  him:  "  Rabbi  Don  Santo!  Rabbi  Don 
Santo!" 

The  troubadour  makes  a  low  obeisance  before  the 
throne.  Dom  Pedro  nods  encouragement,  Maria 
de  Padilla  smiles  graciously,  only  Dona  Blanca's 
pallid  face  remains  immobile.  The  hoary  bard  be- 
gins his  song:1 

1  Cmp.  Kayserling,  Sephardim,  p.  23  (p. 

169 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

"My  noble  king  and  mighty  lord, 

A  discourse  hear  most  true  ; 
'Tis  Santob  brings  your  Grace  the  -word, 
Of  Carrion's  town  the  Jew. 

In  plainest  verse  my  thought  I  tell, 

With  gloss  and  moral  free, 
Drawn  from  Philosophy's  pure  well, 

As  onward  you  may  see."1 

A  murmur  of  approval  runs  through  the  crowd; 
grandees  and  hidalgos  press  closer  to  listen.  In 
well-turned  verse,  fraught  with  worldly-wise  lessons, 
and  indifferent  whether  his  hortations  meet  with 
praise  or  with  censure,  the  poet  continues  to  pour 
out  words  of  counsel  and  moral  teachings,  alike  for 
king,  nobles,  and  people. 

Who  is  this  Rabbi  Don  Santob?  We  know  very 
little  about  him,  yet,  with  the  help  of  "  bright-eyed 
fancy,"  enough  to  paint  his  picture.  The  real  name 
of  this  Jew  from  Carrion  de  los  Condes,  a  city  of 
northern  Spain,  who  lived  under  Alfonso  XL  and 
Peter  the  Cruel,  was,  of  course,  not  Santob,  but 
Shem-Tob.  Under  Alfonso  the  intellectual  life  of 
Spain  developed  to  a  considerable  degree,  and  in 
Spain,  as  almost  everywhere,  we  find  Jews  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  first  intellectual  strivings  of  the 
nation.  They  have  a  share  in  the  development  of 
all  Romance  languages  and  literatures.  Ibn  Al- 
fange,  a  Moorish  Jew,  after  his  conversion  a  high 
official,  wrote  the  first  "  Chronicle  of  the  Cid,"  the 

1  Translation  by  Ticknor.     [Tr.] 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS     I/ 1 

oldest  source  of  the  oft-repeated  biography,  thus 
furnishing  material  to  subsequent  Spanish  poets  and 
historians.  Valentin  Barruchius  (Baruch),  of  To- 
ledo, composed,  probably  in  the  twelfth  century,  in 
pure,  choice  Latin,  the  romance  Comte  Lyonnais, 
Palanus,  which  spread  all  over  Europe,  affording 
modern  poets  subject-matter  for  great  tragedies,  and 
forming  the  groundwork  for  one  of  the  classics  of 
Spanish  literature.  A  little  later,  Petrus  Alphonsus 
(Moses  Sephardi)  wrote  his  Disciplina  Cleric  alls,  the 
first  collection  of  tales  in  the  Oriental  manner,  the 
model  of  all  future  collections  of  the  kind. 

Three  of  the  most  important  works  of  Spanish  lit- 
erature, then,  are  products  of  Jewish  authorship. 
This  fact  prepares  the  student  to  find  a  Jew  among 
the  Castilian  troubadours  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
the  period  of  greatest  literary  activity.  The  Jewish 
spirit  was  by  no  means  antagonistic  to  the  poetry 
of  the  Provencal  troubadours.  In  his  didactic 
poem,  Chatham  Tochnith  ("The  Seal  of  Perfec- 
tion," together  with  "  The  Flaming  Sword  "),  Abra- 
ham Bedersi,  that  is,  of  Beziers  (1305),  challenges 
his  co-religionists  to  a  poetic  combat.  He  details 
the  rules  of  the  tournament,  and  it  is  evident  that  he 
is  well  acquainted  with  all  the  minutiae  of  the  jeu 
parti  and  the  tenso  (song  of  dispute)  of  the -Proven- 
gal  singers,  and  would  willingly  imitate  their  sir- 
ventes  (moral  and  political  song).  His  plaint  over 
the  decadence  of  poetry  among  the  Jews  is  charac- 
teristic: "Where  now  are  the  marvels  of  Hebrew 
poetry?  Mayhap  thou'lt  find  them  in  the  Provencal 


172     JEWISH   TROUBADOURS  AND   MINNESINGERS 

or  Romance.  Aye,  in  Folquet's  verses  is  manna, 
and  from  the  lips  of  Cardinal  is  wafted  the  perfume 
of  crocus  and  nard" — Folquet  de  Lunel  and  Peire 
Cardinal  being  the  last  great  representatives  of  Pro- 
ven£al  troubadour  poetry.  Later  on,  neo-Hebraic 
poets  again  show  acquaintance  with  the  regulations 
governing  song-combats  and  courts  of  love.  Pious 
Bible  exegetes,  like  Samuel  ben  Me'ir,  do  not  dis- 
dain to  speak  of  the  partimens  of  the  troubadours, 
"  in  which  lovers  talk  to  each  other,  and  by  turns 
take  up  the  discourse."  One  of  his  school,  a  Tossa- 
fist,  goes  so  far  as  to  press  into  service  the  day's 
fashion  in  explaining  the  meaning  of  a  verse  in  the 
"Song  of  Songs":  "To  this  day  lovers  treasure 
their  mistress'  locks  as  love-tokens."  It  seems,  too, 
that  Provencal  romances  were  heard,  and  their  great 
poets  welcomed,  in  the  houses  of  Jews,  who  did  not 
scruple  occasionally  to  use  their  melodies  in  the  syn- 
agogue service. 

National  customs,  then,  took  root  in  Israel;  but 
that  Jewish  elements  should  have  become  incorpor- 
ated into  Spanish  literature  is  more  remarkable, 
may,  indeed,  be  called  marvellous.  Yet,  from  one 
point  of  view,  it  is  not  astonishing.  The  whole  of 
mediaeval  Spanish  literature  is  nothing  more  than 
the  handmaiden  of  Christianity.  Spanish  poetry  is 
completely  dominated  by  Catholicism;  it  is  in  re- 
ality only  an  expression  of  reverence  for  Christian 
institutions.  An  extreme  naturally  induces  a  coun- 
ter-current; so  here,  by  the  side  of  rigid  orthodoxy, 
we  meet  with  latitudinarianism  and  secular  delight 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS     1/3 

in  the  good  things  of  life.  For  instance,  that  jolly 
rogue,  the  archpriest  of  Hita,  by  way  of  relaxation 
from  the  tenseness  of  church  discipline,  takes  to 
composing  dansas  and  baladas  for  the  rich  Jewish 
bankers  of  his  town.  He  and  his  contemporaries 
have  much  to  say  about  Jewish  generosity — unfor- 
tunately, much,  too,  about  Jewish  wealth  and  pomp. 
Jewish  women,  a  Jewish  chronicler  relates,  are 
tricked  out  with  finery,  as  "  sumptuously  as  the 
pope's  mules."  It  goes  without  saying  that,  along 
with  these  accounts,  we  have  frequent  wailing  about 
defection  from  the  faith  and  neglect  of  the  Law. 
Old  Akiba  is  right:  "History  repeats  itself!"  ("  Es 
ist  alles  schon  einmal  da  g ewe  sen  !  "). 

Such  were  the  times  of  Santob  de  Carrion.  Our 
first  information  about  him  comes  from  the  Marquis 
de  Santillana,  one  of  the  early  patrons  and  leaders 
of  Spanish  literature.  He  says,  "  In  my  grand- 
father's time  there  was  a  Jew,  Rabbi  Santob,  who 
wrote  many  excellent  things,  among  them  Prover- 
bios  Morales  (Moral  Proverbs),  truly  commendable 
in  spirit  A  great  troubadour,  he  ranks  among  the 
most  celebrated  poets  of  Spain."  Despite  this  high 
praise,  the  marquis  feels  constrained  to  apologize 
for  having  quoted  a  passage  from  Santob's  work. 
His  praise  is  endorsed  by  the  critics.  It  is  com- 
monly conceded  that  his  Consejos  y  Documentos  al 
Rey  Dom  Pedro  ("  Counsel  and  Instruction  to  King 
Dom  Pedro "),  consisting  of  six  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  romances,  deserves  a  place  among  the 
best  creations  of  Castilian  poetry,  which,  in  form 


1/4    JEWISH    TROUBADOURS    AND    MINNESINGERS 

and  substance,  owes  not  a  little  to  Rabbi  San- 
tob.  A  valuable  manuscript  at  the  Escurial  in  Mad- 
rid contains  his  Consejos  and  two  other  works,  La 
Doctrina  Christiana  and  Dansa  General.  A  care- 
less copyist  called  the  whole  collection  "  Rabbi  San- 
tob's  Book,"  so  giving  rise  to  the  mistake  of  Span- 
ish critics,  who  believe  that  Rabbi  Santob,  indisput- 
ably the  author  of  Consejos,  became  a  convert  to 
Christianity,  and  wrote,  after  his  conversion,  the 
didactic  poem  on  doctrinal  Christianity,  and  per- 
haps also  the  first  "  Dance  of  Death,"1  It  was  re- 
served for  the  acuteness  of  German  criticism  to  ex- 
pose the  error  of  this  hypothesis.  Of  the  three 
works,  only  Consejos  belongs  to  Rabbi  Santob,  the 
others  were  accidentally  bound  with  it.  In  passing, 
the  interesting  circumstance  may  be  noted  that  in 
the  first  "  Dance  of  Death  "  a  bearded  rabbi  (Rabbi 
barbudo]  dances  toward  the  universal  goal  between 
a  priest  and  an  usurer.  Santob  de  Carrion  remained 
a  Jew.  His  consejos,  written  when  he  was  advanced 
in  age,  are  pervaded  by  loyalty  to  his  king,  but  no 
less  to  his  faith,  which  he  openly  professed  at  the 
royal  court,  and  whose  spiritual  treasures  he  adroitly 
turned  to  poetic  uses. 

Santob,  it  is  interesting  to  observe,  was  not  a 
writer  of  erotic  poetry.  He  composed  poems  on 
moral  subjects  only,  social  satires  and  denunciations 
of  -vice.  Such  are  the  consejos.  It  is  in  his  capa- 
city as  a  preacher  of  morality  that  Santob  is  to  be 

1  Cmp.  F.  Wolf,  Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  spanischen  National- 
liieratur,  p.  236^". 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS     1/5 

classed  among  troubadours.  First  he  addressed 
himself,  with  becoming  deference,  to  the  king,  lead- 
ing him  to  consider  God's  omnipotence: 

"  As  great,  'twixt  heav'ii  and  earth  the  space — 

That  ether  pure  and  blue — 
So  great  is  God's  forgiving  grace 
Your  sins  to  lift  from  you. 

And  with  His  vast  and  wondrous  might 

He  does  His  deeds  of  power; 
But  yours  are  puny  in  His  sight, 

For  strength  is  not  man's  dower." 

At  that  time  it  required  more  than  ordinary  cour- 
age to  address  a  king  in  this  fashion;  but  Santob 
was  old  and  poor,  and  having  nothing  to  lose,  could 
risk  losing  everything.  A  democratic  strain  runs 
through  his  verses;  he  delights  in  aiming  his  satires 
at  the  rich,  the  high-born,  and  the  powerful,  and 
takes  pride  in  his  poverty  and  his  fame  as  a  poet: 

"  I  will  not  have  you  think  me  less 

Than  others  of  my  faith, 
Who  live  on  a  generous  king's  largess, 
Forsworn  at  every  breath. 

And  if  you  deem  my  teachings  true, 

Reject  them  not  with  hate, 
Because  a  minstrel  sings  to  you 

Who's  not  of  knight's  estate. 

The  fragrant,  waving  reed  grows  tall 

From  feeble  root  and  thin, 
And  uncouth  wrorms  that  lowly  crawl 

Most  lustrous  silk  do  spin. 


1/6     JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

Because  beside  a  thorn  it  grows 

The  rose  is  not  less  fair ; 
Though  wine  from  gnarled  branches  flows, 

'Tis  sweet  beyond  compare. 

The  goshawk,  know,  can  soar  on  high, 

Yet  low  he  nests  his  brood. 
A  Jew  true  precepts  doth  apply, 

Are  they  therefore  less  good  ? 

Some  Jews  there  are  with  slavish  mind 

Who  fear,  are  mute,  and  meek. 
My  soul  to  truth  is  so  inclined 

That  all  I  feel  I  speak. 

There  often  comes  a  meaning  home 
Through  simple  verse  and  plain, 

While  in  the  heavy,  bulky  tome 
We  find  of  truth  no  grain. 

Full  oft  a  man  with  furrowed  front, 
Whom  grief  hath  rendered  grave, 

Whose  views  of  life  are  honest,  blunt, 
Both  fool  is  called  and  knave." 

It  is  surely  not  unwarranted  to  assume  that  from 
these  confessions  the  data  of  Santob's  biography 
may  be  gathered. 

Now  as  to  Santob's  relation  to  Judaism.  Doubt- 
less he  was  a  faithful  Jewr,  for  the  views  of  life  and 
the  world  laid  down  in  his  poems  rest  on  the  Bible, 
the  Talmud,  and  the  Midrash.  With  the  fearlessness 
of  conviction  he  meets  the  king  and  the  people,  de- 
nouncing the  follies  of  both.  Some  of  his  romances 


JEWISH   TROUBADOURS   AND   MINNESINGERS     I?/ 

sound  precisely  like  stories  from  the  Haggada,  so 
skilfully  does  he  clothe  his  counsel  in  the  gnomic 
style  of  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud.  This  character- 
istic is  particularly  well  shown  in  his  verses  on 
friendship,  into  which  he  has  woven  the  phraseology 
of  the  Proverbs: 

"  What  treasure  greater  than  a  friend 

Who  close  to  us  hath  grown  ? 
Blind  fate  110  bitt'rer  lot  can  send 
Than  bid  us  walk  alone. 

For  solitude  doth  cause  a  dearth 

Of  fruitful,  blessed  thought. 
The  wise  would  pray  to  leave  this  earth, 

If  none  their  friendship  sought. 

Yet  sad  though  loneliness  may  be, 

That  friendship  surely  shun 
That  feigns  to  love,  and  inwardly 

Betrays  affections  won." 

The  poem  closes  with  a  prayer  for  the  king,  who 
certainly  could  not  have  taken  offense  at  Santob's 
frankness : 

"  May  God  preserve  our  lord  and  king 

With  grace  omnipotent, 
Remove  from  us  each  evil  thing, 
And  blessed  peace  augment. 

The  nations  loyally  allied 

Our  empire  to  exalt, 
May  God,  in  whom  we  all  confide, 

From  plague  keep  and  assault. 


I7&     JEWISH   TROUBADOURS  AND   MINNESINGERS 

If  God  will  answer  my  request, 

Then  will  be  paid  his  due — 
Your  noble  father's  last  behest — 

To  Santob,  Carrion's  Jew." 

Our  troubadour's  poetry  shows  that  he  was  de- 
votedly attached  to  his  prince,  enthusiastically  loved 
his  country,  and  was  unfalteringly  loyal  to  his  faith; 
that  he  told  the  king  honest,  wholesome  truths  dis- 
guised in  verse ;  that  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal  his 
scorn  of  those  who,  with  base  servility,  bowed  to  the 
ruling  faith,  and  permitted  its  yoke  to  be  put  upon 
their  necks ;  that  he  felt  himself  the  peer  of  the  high 
in  rank,  and  the  wealthy  in  the  goods  of  this  world; 
that  he  censured,  with  incisive  criticism,  the  vices  of 
his  Spanish  and  his  Jewish  contemporaries — all  of 
which  is  calculated  to  inspire  us  with  admiration  for 
the  Jewish  troubadour,  whose  manliness  enabled 
him  to  meet  his  detractors  boldly,  as  in  the  verses 
quoted  above: 

"  Because  beside  a  thorn  it  grows, 

The  rose  is  not  less  fair ; 
Though  wine  from  gnarled  branches  flows, 
'Tis  sweet  beyond  compare. 

A  Jew  true  precepts  doth  apply, 
Are  they  therefore  less  good  ?  " 

History  does  not  tell  us  whether  Pedro  rewarded 
the  Jewish  troubadour  as  the  latter,  if  we  may  judge 
by  the  end  of  his  poem,  had  expected.  Our  ac- 
counts of  his  life  are  meagre;  even  his  fellow-be- 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

lievers  do  not  make  mention  of  him.  We  do  know, 
however,  that  the  poor  poet's  prayers  for  his  sov- 
ereign, his  petitions  for  the  weal  and  the  glory  of  his 
country  were  not  granted.  Pedro  lost  his  life  by 
violence,  quarrels  about  the  succession  and  civil 
wars  convulsed  the  land,  and  weakened  the  royal 
power.  Its  decline  marked  the  end  of  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  the  Jew  on  Castilian  soil. 

As  times  grew  worse,  and  persecutions  of  the 
Jews  in  Christian  Spain  became  frequent,  many  for- 
sook the  faith  of  their  fathers,  to  bask  in  the  sun- 
shine of  the  Church,  who  treated  proselytes  with  dis- 
tinguished favor.  The  example  of  the  first  Jewish 
troubadour  did  not  find  imitators.  Among  the  con- 
verts were  many  poets,  notably  Juan  Alfonso  de 
Bsena,  who,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  collected  the 
oldest  troubadour  poetry,  including  his  own  poems 
and  satires,  and  the  writings  of  the  Jewish  physician 
Don  Moses  Zarzal,  into  a  cancionera  general.  Like 
many  apostates,  he  sought  to  prove  his  devotion  to 
the  new  faith  by  mocking  at  and  reviling  his  former 
brethren.  The  attacked  were  not  slow  to  answer  in 
kind,  and  the  Christian  world  of  poets  and  bards 
joined  the  latter  in  deriding  the  neophytes.  Spanish 
literature  was  not  the  loser  by  these  combats,  whose 
description  belongs  to  general  literary  criticism. 
Lyric  poetry,  until  then  dry,  serious,  and  solemn, 
was  infused  by  the  satirist  with  flashing  wit  and 
whimsical  spirit,  and  throwing  off  its  connection 
with  the  drama,  developed  into  an  independent  spe- 
cies of  poetry. 


l8O    JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

The  last  like  the  first  of  Spanish  troubadours  was 
a  Jew,1  Antonio  di  Montoro  (Moro),  el  ropero  (the 
tailor),  of  Cordova,  of  whom  a  contemporary  says, 

"  A  man  of  repute  and  lofty  fame  ; 
As  poet,  he  puts  many  to  shame  ; 
Anton  di  Montoro  is  his  name." 

The  tailor-poet  was  exposed  to  attacks,  too.  A 
high  and  mighty  Spanish  caballero  addresses  him  as 

"  You  Cohn,  you  cur, 
You  miserable  Jew, 
You  wicked  usurer." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  he  parries  these  thrusts 
with  weak,  apologetic  appeals,  preserved  in  his  Res- 
puestas  (Rhymed  Answers).  He  claims  his  high- 
born foe's  sympathy  by  telling  him  that  he  has  sons, 
grandchildren,  a  poor,  old  father,  and  a  marriage- 
able daughter.  In  extenuation  of  his  cowardice  it 
should  be  remembered  that  Antonio  di  Montoro 
lived  during  a  reign  of  terror,  under  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  when  his  race  and  his  faith  were  exposed 
to  most  frightful  persecution.  All  the  more  note- 
worthy is  it  that  he  had  the  courage  to  address  the 
queen  in  behalf  of  his  faith.  He  laments  plaintively 
that  despite  his  sixty  years  he  has  not  been  able  to 
eradicate  all  traces  of  his  descent  (reato  de  su  ori- 
geri},  and  turns  his  irony  against  himself: 

1  Cmp.  Kayserling,  /.  c.  p. 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS      l8l 

"  Kopero,  so  sad  and  so  forlorn, 
Now  thou  feelest  pain  and  scorn. 
Until  sixty  years  had  flown, 
Thou  couldst  say  to  every  one, 
'  Nothing  wicked  have  I  known.' 

Christian  convert  hast  thou  turned, 
Credo  thou  to  say  hast  learned  ; 
Willing  art  now  bold  to  view 
Plates  of  ham — no  more  askew. 
Mass  thou  hearest, 
Church  reverest, 
Genuflexions  makest, 
Other  alien  customs  takest. 
Now  thou,  too,  mayst  persecute 
Those  poor  wretches,  like  a  brute." 

"  Those  poor  wretches  "  were  his  brethren  in  faith 
in  the  fair  Spanish  land.  With  a  jarring  discord 
ends  the  history  of  the  Jews  in  Spain.  On  the  ninth 
of  Ab,  1492,  three  hundred  thousand  Jews  left  the 
land  to  which  they  had  given  its  first  and  its  last 
troubadour.  The  irony  of  fate  directed  that  at  the 
selfsame  time  Christopher  Columbus  should  em- 
bark for  unknown  lands,  and  eventually  reach 
America,  a  new  world,  the  refuge  of  all  who  suffer, 
wherein  thought  was  destined  to  grow  strong 
enough  "to  vanquish  arrogance  and  injustice  with- 
out recourse  to  arrogance  and  injustice  " — a  new 
illustration  of  the  old  verse:  "Behold,  he  slumber- 
eth  not,  and  he  sleepeth  not — the  keeper  of  Israel." 


1 82     JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

A  great  tournament  at  the  court  of  the  lords  of 
Trimberg,  the  Franconian  town  on  the  Saale!  From 
high  battlements  stream  the  pennons  of  the  noble 
race,  announcing  rare  festivities  to  all  the  country 
round.  The  mountain-side  is  astir  with  knights 
equipped  with  helmet,  shield,  and  lance,  and  at- 
tended by  pages  and  armor-bearers,  minnesingers 
and  minstrels.  Yonder  is  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide,  engaged  in  earnest  conversation  with  Wolf- 
ram von  Eschenbach,  Otto  von  Botenlaube,  Hilde- 
bold  von  Schwanegau,  and  Reinmar  von  Brennen- 
berg.  In  that  group  of  notables,  curiously  enough, 
we  discern  a  Jew,  whose  beautiful  features  reflect 
harmonious  soul  life. 

"Siisskind  von  Trimberg,"  they  call  him,  and 
when  the  pleasure  of  the  feast  in  the  lordly  hall  of 
the  castle  is  to  be  heightened  by  song  and  music,  he 
too  steps  forth,  with  fearlessness  and  dignity,  to 
sing  of  freedom  of  thought,  to  the  prevalence  of 
which  in  this  company  the  despised  Jew  owed  his 
admission  to  a  circle  of  knights  and  poets:1 

"  O  thought !  free  gift  to  humankind  ! 

By  thee  both  fools  and  wise  are  led, 
But  Avho  thy  paths  hath  all  denned, 

A  man  he  is  in  heart  and  head. 

\Vith  thee,  his  weakness  being  fled, 
He  can  both  stone  and  steel  command, 
Thy  pinions  bear  him  o'er  the  land. 

1  Livius  Fiirst  in  Illustrirte  Monatshefte  fur  die  gesammten 
Interessen  des  Judenthums,  Vol.  L,  p.  14  ff.  Cmp.  also,  Hagen, 
Minnestinger,  Vol.  II.,  p.  258,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  536  ff.,  and  W.  Gold- 
baum,  Entlegeiic  Cutturen,  p.  275^ 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS     183 

O  thought  that  swifter  art  than  light, 
That  mightier  art  than  tempest's  roar  ! 

Didst  thou  not  raise  me  in  thy  flight, 
What  were  my  song,  my  minstrel  lore, 
And  what  the  gold  from  Minne*s  store  ? 

Beyond  the  heights  an  eagle  vaunts, 

O  bear  me  to  the  spirit's  haunts  !  " 

His  song  meets  with  the  approval  of  the  knights, 
who  give  generous  encouragement  to  the  minstrel. 
Raising  his  eyes  to  the  proud,  beautiful  mistress  of 
the  castle,  he  again  strikes  his  lyre  and  sings: 

"  Pure  woman  is  to  man  a  crown, 
For  her  he  strives  to  win  renown. 
Did  she  not  grace  and  animate, 
How  mean  and  low  the  castle  great ! 
By  true  companionship,  the  wife 
Makes  blithe  and  free  a  man's  whole  life  ; 
Her  light  turns  bright  the  darkest  day. 
Her  praise  and  worth  I'll  sing  alway." 

The  lady  inclines  her  fair  head  in  token  of  thanks, 
and  the  lord  of  castle  Trimberg  fills  the  golden  gob- 
let, and  hands  it,  the  mark  of  honor,  to  the  poet, 
who  drains  it,  and  then  modestly  steps  back  into  the 
circle  of  his  compeers.  Now  we  have  leisure  to 
examine  the  rare  man. — 

Riidiger  Manesse,  a  town  councillor  of  Zurich  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  raised  a  beautiful  monument 
to  bardic  art  in  a  manuscript  work,  executed  at  his 
order,  containing  the  songs  of  one  hundred  and 
forty  poets,  living  between  the  twelfth  and  the  four- 
teenth century.  Among  the  authors  are  kings, 


184    JEWISH   TROUBADOURS  AND   MINNESINGERS 

princes,  noblemen  of  high  rank  and  low,  burgher- 
poets,  and  the  Jew  Siisskind  von  Trimberg.  Each 
poet's  productions  are  accompanied  by  illustrations, 
not  authentic  portraits,  but  a  series  of  vivid  represen- 
tations of  scenes  of  knight-errantry.  There  are 
scenes  of  war  and  peace,  of  combats,  the  chase,  and 
tourneys  with  games,  songs,  and  dance.  We  see  the 
storming  of  a  castle  of  Love  (Minneburg) — lovers 
fleeing,  lovers  separated,  love  triumphant.  Hein- 
rich  von  Veldeke  reclines  upon  a  bank  of  roses; 
Friedrich  von  Hausen  is  on  board  a  boat;  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide  sits  musing  on  a  wayside  stone ; 
Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  stands  armed,  with  visor 
closed,  next  to  his  caparisoned  horse,  as  though 
about  to  mount.  Among  the  portraits  of  the 
knights  and  bards  is  Siisskind  von  Trimberg's.  How 
does  Riidiger  Manesse  represent  him?  As  a  long- 
bearded  Jew,  on  his  head  a  yellow,  funnel-shaped 
hat,  the  badge  of  distinction  decreed  by  Pope  Inno- 
cent III.  to  be  worn  by  Jews.  That  is  all!  and  save 
what  we  may  infer  from  his  six  poems  preserved  by 
the  history  of  literature,  pretty  much  all,  too,  known 
of  Siisskind  von  Trimberg. 

Was  it  the  heedlessness  of  the  compiler  that  asso- 
ciated the  Jew  with  this  merry  company,  in  which 
he  was  as  much  out  of  place  as  a  Gothic  spire  on 
a  synagogue?  Siisskind  came  by  the  privilege 
fairly.  Throughout  the  middle  ages  the  Jews  of 
Germany  were  permeated  with  the  culture  of  their 
native  land,  and  were  keenly  concerned  in  the  devel- 
opment of  its  poetry.  A  still  more  important  cir- 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS      185 

cumstance  is  the  spirit  of  tolerance  and  humanity 
that  pervades  Middle  High  German  poetry.  Wolf- 
ram von  Eschenbach  based  his  Parzival,  the  herald 
of  "  Nathan  the  Wise,"  on  the  idea  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man;  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  ranged 
Christians,  Jews,  and  Mohammedans  together  as 
children  of  the  one  God;  and  Freidank,  reflecting 
that  God  lets  His  sun  shine  on  the  confessors  of  all 
creeds,  went  so  far  as  to  repudiate  the  doctrine  of  the 
eternal  damnation  of  Jews.  This  trend  of  thought, 
characterizing  both  Jews  and  Christians,  suffices  to 
explain  how,  in  Germany,  and  at  the  very  time  in 
which  the  teachers  of  the  Church  were  reviling  "  the 
mad  Jews,  who  ought  to  be  hewn  down  like  dogs," 
it  was  possible  for  a  Jew  to  be  a  minnesinger,  a  min- 
strel among  minstrels,  and  abundantly  accounts  for 
Susskind  von  Trimberg's  association  with  knights 
and  ladies.  Susskind,  then,  doubtless  journeyed 
with  his  brother-poets  from  castle  to  castle;  yet  our 
imagination  would  be  leading  us  astray,  were  we  to 
accept  literally  the  words  of  the  enthusiastic  his- 
torian Graetz,  and  with  him  believe  that  "  on  vine- 
clad  hills,  seated  in  the  circle  of  noble  knights  and 
fair  dames,  a  beaker  of  wine  at  his  side,  his  lyre  in 
his  hand,  he  sang  his  polished  verses  of  love's  joys 
and  trials,  love's  hopes  and  fears,  and  then  awaited 
the  largesses  that  bought  his  daily  bread."1 

Siisskind's  poems  are  not  at  all  like  the  joyous, 
rollicking  songs  his  mates  carolled  forth;  they  are 
sad  and  serious,  tender  and  chaste.  Of  love  there  is 

'Graetz,  Gtsckichte  der  Juden,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  257. 


1 86    JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

not  a  word.  A  minnesinger  and  a  Jew — irreconcil- 
able opposites!  A  minnesinger  must  be  a  knight 
wooing  his  lady-love,  whose  colors  he  wears  at  the 
tournaments,  and  for  whose  sake  he  undertakes  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  Jew's  minstrelsy 
is  a  lament  for  Zion. 

In  fact  what  is  Minne — this  service  of  love?  Is  it 
not  at  bottom  the  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary?  Is  it 
not,  in  a  subtle,  mysterious  way,  a  phase  of  Christi- 
anity itself?  How  could  it  have  appealed  to  the  Jew 
Siisskind?  True,  the  Jews,  too,  have  an  ideal  of 
love  in  the  "  Song  of  Songs  " :  "  Lo,  thou  art  beau- 
tiful, my  beloved!"  it  says,  but  our  old  sages  took 
the  beloved  to  be  the  Synagogue.  Of  this  love 
Princess  Sabbath  is  the  ideal,  and  the  passion  of  the 
"  Song  of  Songs  "  is  separated  from  German  Minne 
by  the  great  gap  between  the  soul  life  of  the  Semite 
and  that  of  the  Christian  German.  Unbridled  sen- 
suousness  surges  through  the  songs  rising  to  the 
chambers  of  noble  ladies.  Kabbalistic  passion 
glows  in  the  mysterious  love  of  the  Jew.  The  Ger- 
man minstrel  sings  of  love's  sweetness  and  pain,  of 
summer  and  its  delights,  of  winter  and  its  woes,  now 
of  joy  and  happiness,  again  of  ill-starred  fortunes. 
And  what  is  the  burden  of  the  exiled  Hebrew's  song? 
Mysterious  allusions,  hidden  in  a  tangle  of  highly 
polished,  artificial,  slow-moving  rhymes,  glorify,  not 
a  sweet  womanly  presence,  but  a  fleeting  vision,  a 
shadow,  whose  elusive  charms  infatuated  the  poet 
in  his  dreams.  Bright,  joyous,  blithe,  unmeasured 
is  the  one;  serious,  gloomy,  chaste,  gentle,  the  other. 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS      l8/ 

Yet,  Siisskind  von  Trimberg  was  at  once  a  Jew 
and  a  minnesinger.  Who  can  fathom  a  poet's  soul? 
Who  can  follow  his  thoughts  as  they  fly  hither  and 
thither,  like  the  thread  in  a  weaver's  shuttle,  fashion- 
ing themselves  into  a  golden  web?  The  minne- 
singers enlisted  in  love's  cause,  yet  none  the  less  in 
war  and  the  defense  of  truth,  and  for  'the  last  Siiss- 
kind von  Trimberg  did  valiant  service.  The  poems 
of  his  earliest  period,  the  blithesome  days  of  youth, 
have  not  survived.  Those  that  we  have  bear  the 
stamp  of  sorrow  and  trouble,  the  gifts  of  advanced 
years.  With  self-contemptuous  bitterness,  he  be- 
wails his  sad  lot: 

"  I  seek  and  nothing  find, — 
That  makes  me  sigh  and  sigh. 
Lord  Lackfood  presses  me, 
Of  hunger  sure  I'll  die  ; 
My  wife,  my  child  go  supperless, 
My  butler  is  Sir  Meagreness." 

Siisskind  von  Trimberg's  poems  also  breathe  the 
spirit  of  Hebrew  literature,  and  have  drawn  material 
from  the  legend  world  of  the  Haggada.  For  the 
praise  of  his  faithful  wife  he  borrows  the  words  of 
Solomon,  and  the  psalm-like  rhythm  of  his  best 
songs  recalls  the  familiar  strains  of  our  evening- 
prayer: 

"Almighty  God  !  That  shinest  with  the  sun, 
That  slumb'rest  not  when  day  grows  into  night  ! 
Thou  Source  of  all,  of  tranquil  peace  and  joy  ! 
Thou  King  of  glory  and  majestic  light ! 


1 88     JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

Thou  allgood  Father  !   Golden  rays  of  day 
And  starry  hosts  thy  praise  to  sing  unite, 
Creator  of  heav'n  and  earth,  Eternal  One, 
That  watchest  ev'ry  creature  from  Thy  height !  " 

Like  Santob,  Siisskind  was  poor;  like  him,  he  de- 
nounced the  rich,  was  proud  and  generous.  With 
intrepid  candor,  he  taught  knights  the  meaning  of 
true  nobility — of  the  nobility  of  soul  transcending 
nobility  of  birth — and  of  freedom  of  thought — 
freedom  fettered  by  neither  stone,  nor  steel,  nor 
iron;  and  in  the  midst  of  their  rioting  and  feasting, 
he  ventured  to  put  before  them  the  solemn  thought 
of  death.  His  last  production  as  a  minnesinger  was 
a  prescription  for  a  "virtue-electuary."  Then  he 
went  to  dwell  among  his  brethren,  whom,  indeed, 
he  had  not  deserted  in  the  pride  of  his  youth: 

"  Why  should  I  wander  sadly, 
My  harp  within  my  hand, 
O'er  mountain,  hill,  and  valley  ? 
What  praise  do  I  command  ? 

Full  well  they  know  the  singer 

Belongs  to  race  accursed  ; 
Sweet  Minne  doth  no  longer 

Reward  me  as  at  first. 

Be  silent,  then,  my  lyre, 

We  sing  'fore  lords  in  vain. 
I'll  leave  the  minstrels'  choir, 

And  roam  a  Jew  again. 

My  staff  and  hat  I'll  grasp,  then, 

And  on  my  breast  full  low, 
By  Jewish  custom  olden 

My  grizzled  beard  shali  grow. 


JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS      189 

My  days  I'll  pass  in  quiet, — 

Those  left  to  me  on  earth — 
Nor  sing  for  those  who  not  yet 

Have  learned  a  poet's  worth." 

Thus  spake  the  Jewish  poet,  and  dropped  his  lyre 
into  the  stream — in  song  and  in  life,  a  worthy  son 
of  his  time,  the  disciple  of  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide,  the  friend  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach — dis- 
ciple and  friend  of  the  first  to  give  utterance,  in  Ger- 
man song,  to  the  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
Centuries  ago,  he  found  the  longed-for  quiet  in 
Franconia,  but  no  wreath  lies  on  his  grave,  no  stone 
marks  the  wanderer's  resting-place.  His  poems 
have  found  an  abiding  home  in  the  memory  of  pos- 
terity, and  in  the  circle  of  the  German  minnesingers 
the  Jew  Siisskind  forms  a  distinct  link. 

In  a  time  when  the  idea  of  universal  human 
brotherhood  seems  to  be  fading  from  the  hearts  of 
men,  when  they  manifest  a  proneness  to  forget  the 
share  which,  despite  hatred  and  persecution,  the 
Jew  of  every  generation  has  had  in  German  litera- 
ture, in  its  romances  of  chivalry  and  its  national 
epics,  and  in  all  the  spiritual  achievements  of  Ger- 
man genius,  we  may  with  just  pride  revive  Suss- 
kind's  memory. — 

On  the  wings  of  fancy  let  us  return  to  our  castle 
on  the  Saale.  After  the  lapse  of  many  years,  the 
procession  of  poets  again  wends  its  way  in  the  sun- 
shine up  the  slope  to  the  proud  mansion  of  the 
Trimbergs.  The  venerable  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide  again  opens  the  festival  of  song.  Wolfram 


I9O     JEWISH    TROUBADOURS   AND    MINNESINGERS 

von  Eschenbach,  followed  by  a  band  of  young  dis- 
ciples, musingly  ascends  the  mountain-side.  The 
ranks  grow  less  serried,  and  in  solitude  and  sadness, 
advances  a  man  of  noble  form,  his  silvery  beard 
flowing  down  upon  his  breast,  a  long  cloak  over  his 
shoulder,  and  the  peaked  hat,  the  badge  of  the  me- 
diaeval Jew,  on  his  head.  In  his  eye  gleams  a  ray  of 
the  poet's  grace,  and  his  meditative  glance  looks  into 
a  distant  future.  Susskind  von  Trimberg,  to  thee 
our  greeting! 


HUMOR  AND  LOVE  IN  JEWISH  POETRY 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries  of  the  last 
ten  years  is  that  made  in  Paris  by  M.  Ernest  Renan. 
He  maintains  as  the  result  of  scientific  research  that 
the  Semitic  races,  consequently  also  the  Jews,  are 
lacking  in  humor,  in  the  capacity  for  laughter.  The 
justice  of  the  reproach  might  be  denied  outright,  but 
a  statement  enunciated  with  so  much  scientific  as- 
surance involuntarily  prompts  questioning  and  in- 
vestigation. 

In  such  cases  the  Jews  invariably  resort  to  their 
first  text-book,  the  Bible,  whose  pages  seem  to  sus- 
tain M.  Renan.  In  the  Bible  laughing  is  mentioned 
only  twice,  when  the  angel  promises  a  son  to  Sarah, 
and  again  in  the  history  of  Samson,  judge  in  Israel, 
who  used  foxes'  tails  as  weapons  against  the  Philis- 
tines. These  are  the  only  passages  in  which  the 
Bible  departs  from  its  serious  tone. 

But  classical  antiquity  was  equally  ignorant  of 
humor  as  a  distinct  branch  of  art,  as  a  peculiar  atti- 
tude of  the  mind  towards  the  problems  of  life.  Aris- 
tophanes lived  and  could  have  written  only  in  the 
days  when  Athenian  institutions  began  to  decay.  It 
is  personal  discomfort  and  the  trials  and  harass- 
ments  of  life  that  drive  men  to  the  ever  serene,  pure 
regions  of  humor  for  balm  and  healing.  Fun  and 


IQ2  HUMOK    AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY 

comedy  men  have  at  all  times  understood — the  his- 
tory of  Samson  contains  the  germs  of  a  mock-heroic 
poem — while  it  was  impossible  for  humor,  genuine 
humor,  to  find  appreciation  in  the  youth  of  mankind. 
In  those  days  of  healthy  reliance  upon  the  senses, 
poetic  spirits  could  obtain  satisfaction  only  in  love 
and  in  the  praise  of  the  good  world  and  its  Maker. 
The  sombre  line  of  division  had  not  yet  been  intro- 
duced between  the  physical  and  the  spiritual  world, 
debasing  this  earth  to  a  vale  of  tears,  and  consoling 
sinful  man  by  the  promise  of  a  better  land,  whose 
manifold  delights  were  described,  but  about  which 
there  was  no  precise  knowledge,  no  traveller,  as  the 
Talmud  aptly  puts  it,  having  ever  returned  to  give 
us  information  about  it.  Those  were  the  days  of 
perfect  harmony,  when  man  crept  close  to  nature  to 
be  taught  untroubled  joy  in  living.  In  such  days, 
despite  the  storms  assailing  the  young  Israelitish 
nation,  a  poet,  his  heart  filled  with  the  sunshine  of 
joy,  his  mind  receptive,  his  eyes  open  wide  to  see  the 
flowers  unfold,  the  buds  of  the  fig  tree  swell,  the  vine 
put  forth  leaves,  and  the  pomegranate  blossom  un- 
furl its  glowing  petals,  could  carol  forth  the  "  Song 
of  Songs,"  the  most  perfect,  the  most  beautiful,  the 
purest  creation  of  Hebrew  literature  and  the  erotic 
poetry  of  all  literatures — the  song  of  songs  of  stormy 
passion,  bidding  defiance  to  ecclesiastical  fetters, 
at  once  an  epic  and  a  drama,  full  of  childlike  tender- 
ness and  grace  of  feeling.  Neither  Greece,  nor  the 
rest  of  the  Orient  has  produced  anything  to  com- 
pare with  its  marvellous  union  of  voluptuous  sensu- 


HUMOR    AND'  LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY  IQ3 

ousness  and  immaculate  chastity.  Morality,  indeed, 
is  its  very  pulse-beat.  It  could  be  sung  only  in  an 
age  when  love  reigned  supreme,  and  could  presume 
to  treat  humor  as  a  pretender.  So  lofty  a  song  was 
bound  to  awaken  echoes  and  stimulate  imitation, 
and  its  music  has  flowed  down  through  the  centu- 
ries, weaving  a  thread  of  melody  about  the  heart  of 
many  a  poet. 

The  centuries  of  Israelitish  history  close  upon  its 
composition,  however,  were  favorable  to  neither  the 
poetry  of  love  nor  that  of  humor.  But  the  poetry 
of  love  must  have  continued  to  exercise  puissant 
magic  over  hearts  and  minds,  if  its  supreme  poem 
not  only  was  made  part  of  the  holy  canon,  but  was 
considered  by  a  teacher  of  the  Talmud  the  most 
sacred  treasure  of  the  compilation. 

The  blood  of  the  Maccabean  heroes  victorious 
over  Antiochus  Epiphanes  again  fructified  the  old 
soil  of  Hebrew  poetry,  and  charmed  forth  fra- 
grant blossoms,  the  psalms  designated  as  Macca- 
bean by  modern  criticism.  Written  in  troublous 
times,  they  contain  a  reference  to  the  humor  of  the 
future:  "When  the  Lord  bringeth  back  again  the 
captivity  of  Zion,  then  shall  we  be  like  dreamers, 
then  shall  our  mouth  be  filled  with  laughter,  and 
our  tongue  with  singing." 

Many  sad  days  were  destined  to  pass  over  Israel 
before  that  future  with  its  solacement  of  humor 
dawned.  No  poetic  work  could  obtain  recognition 
next  to  the  Bible.  The  language  of  the  prophets 
ceased  to  be  the  language  of  the  people,  and  every 


194  HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY 

mind  was  occupied  with  interpreting  their  words  and 
applying  them  to  the  religious  needs  of  the  hour. 
The  opposition  between  Jewish  and  Hellenic-Syrian 
views  became  more  and  more  marked.  Hellas  and 
Judaea,  the  two  great  theories  of  life  supporting  the 
fabric  of  civilization,  for  the  first  time  confronted 
each  other.  An  ancient  expounder  of  the  Bible  says 
that  to  Hellas  God  gave  beauty  in  the  beginning,  to 
Judaea  truth,  as  a  sacred  heritage.  But  beauty  and 
truth  have  ever  been  inveterate  foes;  even  now  they 
are  not  reconciled. 

In  Judaea  and  Greece,  ancient  civilization  found 
equally  perfect,  yet  totally  different,  expression.  The 
Greek  worships  nature  as  she  is;  the  Jew  dwells 
upon  the  origin  and  development  of  created  things, 
hence  worships  their  Creator.  The  former  in  his 
speculations  proceeds  from  the  multiplicity  of  phe- 
nomena; the  latter  discerns  the  unity  of  the  plan. 
To  the  former  the  universe  was  changeless  actuality ; 
to  the  latter  it  meant  unending  development.  The 
world,  complete  and  perfect,  was  mirrored  in  the 
Greek  mind ;  its  evolution,  in  the  Jewish.  Therefore 
the  Jewish  conception  of  life  is  harmonious,  while 
among  the  Greeks  grew  up  the  spirit  of  doubt  and 
speculation,  the  product  of  civilization,  and  the  soil 
upon  which  humor  disports. 

Israel's  religion  so  completely  satisfied  every  spir- 
itual craving  that  no  room  was  left  for  the  growth 
of  the  poetic  instinct.  Intellectual  life  began  to  di- 
vide into  two  great  streams.  The  Halacha  con- 
tinued the  instruction  of  the  prophets,  as  the  Hag- 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY  IQ5 

gada  fostered  the  spirit  of  the  psalmists.  The  prov- 
ince of  the  former  was  to  formulate  the  Law,  of  the 
latter  to  plant  a  garden  about  the  bulwark  of  the 
Law.  While  the  one  addressed  itself  to  reason,  the 
other  made  an  appeal  to  the  heart  and  the  feelings. 
In  the  Haggada,  a  thesaurus  of  the  national  poetry 
by  the  nameless  poets  of  many  centuries,  we  find 
epic  poems  and  lyric  outbursts,  fables,  enigmas,  and 
dramatic  essays,  and  here  and  there  in  this  garden 
we  chance  across  a  little  bud  of  humorous  composi- 
tion. 

Of  what  sort  was  this  humor?  In  point  of  fact, 
what  is  humor?  We  must  be  able  to  answer  the 
latter  question  before  we  may  venture  to  classify  the 
folklore  of  the  Haggada. 

To  reach  the  ideal,  to  bring  harmony  out  of  dis- 
cord, is  the  recognized  task  of  all  art.  This  is  the 
primary  principle  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  aesthetic 
criticism.  Tragedy  idealizes  the  world  by  annihila- 
tion, harmonizes  all  contradictions  by  dashing  them 
in  pieces  against  each  other,  and  points  the  way  of 
escape  from,  chaos,  across  the  bridge  of  death,  to 
the  realm  beyond,  irradiated  by  the  perpetual  morn- 
ing-dawn of  freedom  and  intellect. 

Comedy,  on  the  other  hand,  believes  that  the  in- 
congruities and  imperfections  of  life  can  be  justified, 
and  have  their  uses.  Firmly  convinced  of  the  might 
of  truth,  it  holds  that  the  folly  and  aberrations  of 
men,  their  shortcomings  and  failings,  cannot  im- 
pede its  eventual  victory.  Even  in  them  it  sees 
traces  of  an  eternal,  divine  principle.  While  tragedy 


196  HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

precipitates  the  conflict  of  hostile  forces,  comedy, 
rising  serene  above  folly  and  all  indications  of  tran- 
sitoriness,  reconciles  inconsistencies,  and  lovingly 
coaxes  them  into  harmony  with  the  true  and  the 
absolute. 

When  man's  spirit  is  thus  made  to  re-enter  upon 
the  enjoyment  of  eternal  truth,  its  heritage,  there  is, 
as  some  one  has  well  said,  triumph  akin  to  the  joy  of 
the  father  over  the  home-coming  of  a  lost  son,  and 
the  divine,  refreshing  laughter  by  which  it  is  greeted 
is  like  the  meal  prepared  for  the  returning  favorite. 
Is  Israel  to  have  no  seat  at  the  table?  Israel,  the 
first  to  recognize  that  the  eternal  truths  of  life  are 
innate  in  man,  the  first  to  teach,  as  his  chief  mes- 
sage, how  to  reconcile  man  with  himself  and  the 
world,  whenever  these  truths  suffer  temporary  ob- 
scuration? So  viewed,  humor  is  the  offspring  of 
love,  and  also  mankind's  redeemer,  inasmuch  as  it 
paralyzes  the  influence  of  anger  and  hatred,  emana- 
tions from  the  powers  of  change  and  finality,  by  lay- 
ing bare  the  eternal  principles  and  "  sweet  reason- 
ableness "  hidden  even  in  them,  and  finally  stripping 
them  of  every  adjunct  incompatible  with  the  serenity 
of  absolute  truth.  In  whatever  mind  humor,  that 
is,  love  and  cheerfulness,  reigns  supreme,  the  incon- 
sistencies and  imperfections  of  life,  all  that  bears  the 
impress  of  mutability,  will  gently  and  gradually  be 
fused  into  the  harmonious  perfection  of  absolute, 
eternal  truth.  Mists  sometimes  gather  about  the 
sun,  but  unable  to  extinguish  his  light,  they  are 
forced  to  serve  as  his  mirror,  on  which  he  throws 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY          1 9? 

the  witching  charms  of  the  Fata  Morgana.  So, 
when  the  eternal  truths  of  life  are  veiled,  opportunity 
is  made  for  humor  to  play  upon  and  irradiate  them. 
In  precise  language,  humor  is  a  state  of  perfect  self- 
certainty,  in  which  the  mind  serenely  rises  superior 
to  every  petty  disturbance. 

This  placidity  shed  its  soft  light  into  the  modest 
academies  of  the  rabbis.  Wherever  a  ray  fell,  a 
blossom  of  Haggadic  folklore  sprang  up,  Every 
occurrence  in  life  recommends  itself  to  their  loving 
scrutiny:  pleasures  and  follies  of  men,  curse  turned 
into  blessing,  the  ordinary  course  of  human  events, 
curiosities  of  Israel's  history  and  mankind's.  As 
instances  of  their  method,  take  what  Midrashic  folk- 
lore has  to  say  concerning  the  creation  of  the  two 
things  of  perennial  interest  to  poets:  wife  and  wine. 

When  the  Lord  God  created  woman,  he  formed 
her  not  from  the  head  of  man,  lest  she  be  too  proud ; 
not  from  his  eye,  lest  she  be  too  coquettish;  not 
from  his  ear,  lest  she  be  too  curious;  not  from  his 
mouth,  lest  she  be  too  talkative;  not  from  his  heart, 
lest  she  be  too  sentimental ;  not  from  his  hands,  lest 
she  be  too  officious;  nor  from  his  feet,  lest  she  be 
an  idle  gadabout;  but  from  a  subordinate  part  of 
man's  anatomy,  to  teach  her:  "Woman,  be  thou 
modest!" 

With  regard  to  the  vine,  the  Haggada  tells  us 
that  when  Father  Noah  was  about  to  plant  the  first 
one,  Satan  stepped  up  to  him,  leading  a  lamb,  a 
lion,  a  pig,  and  an  ape,  to  teach  him  that  so  long  as 
man  does  not  drink  wine,  he  is  innocent  as  a  lamb; 


198  HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

if  he  drinks  temperately,  he  is  as  strong  as  a  lion ;  if 
he  indulges  too  freely,  he  sinks  to  the  level  of  swine ; 
and  as  for  the  ape,  his  place  in  the  poetry  of  wine  is 
as  well  known  to  us  as  to  the  rabbis  of  old. 
f  With  the  approach  of  the  great  catastrophe  des- 
tined to  annihilate  Israel's  national  existence,  hu- 
mor and  spontaneity  vanish,  to  be  superseded  by 
seriousness,  melancholy,  and  bitter  plaints,  and  the 
centuries  of  despondency  and  brooding  that  fol- 
lowed it  were  not  better  calculated  to  encourage  the 
expression  of  love  and  humor.  The  pall  was  not 
lifted  until  the  Haggada  performed  its  mission  as  a 
comforter.  Under  its  gentle  ministrations,  and 
urged  into  vitality  by  the  religious  needs  of  the  syn- 
agogue, the  poetic  instinct  awoke.  Pint  and  Se- 
licha  replaced  prophecy  and  psalmody  as  religious 
agents,  and  thenceforth  the  springs  of  consolation 
were  never  permitted  to  run  dry.  Driven  from  the 
shores  of  the  Jordan  and  the  Euphrates,  Hebrew 
poetry  found  a  new  home  on  the  Tagus  and  the 
Manzanares,  where  the  Jews  were  blessed  with  a 
second  golden  age.  In  the  interval  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  century,  under  genial 
Arabic  influences,  Andalusian  masters  of  song  built 
up  an  ideal  world  of  poetry,  wherein  love  and  hu- 
mor were  granted  untrammelled  liberty. 

To  the  Spanish -Jewish  writers  poetry  was  an  end 
in  itself.  Along  with  religious  songs,  perfect  in 
rhythm  and  form,  they  produced  lyrics  on  secular 
subjects,  whose  grace,  beauty,  harmony,  and  wealth 
of  thought  rank  them  with  the  finest  creations  of  the 


HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY  199 

age.  The  spirit  of  the  prophets  and  psalmists  re- 
vived in  these  Spanish  poets.  At  their  head  stands 
Solomon  ihn  Qahirnl  the  Faust  of  Saragossa,  whose 
poems  are  the  first  tinged  with  Weltschmerz,  that 
peculiar  ferment  characteristic  of  a  modern  school 
of  poets.1  Our  accounts  of  Gabirol's  life  are  meagre, 
but  they  leave  the  clear  impression  that  he  was  not 
a  favorite  of  fortune,  and  passed  a  bleak  childhood 
and  youth.  His  poems  are  pervaded  by  vain  long- 
ing for  the  ideal,  by  lamentations  over  deceived 
hopes  and  unfulfilled  aspirations,  by  painful  realiza- 
tion of  the  imperfection  and  perishability  of  all 
earthly  things,  and  the  insignificance  and  transitori- 
ness  of  life,  in  a  word,  by  Weltschmerz,  in  its  purest, 
ideal  form,  not  merely  self-deception  and  irony 
turned  against  one's  own  soul  life,  but  a  profoundly 
solemn  emotion,  springing  from  sublime  pity  for  the 
misery  of  the  world  read  by  the  light  of  personal 
trials  and  sorrows.  He  sang  not  of  a  mistress'  blue 
eyes,  nor  sighed  forth  melancholy  love-notes — the 
object  of  his  heart's  desire  was  Zion,  his  muse  the 
fair  "  rose  of  Sharon,"  and  his  anguish  was  for  the 
suffering  of  his  scattered  people.  Strong,  wild 
words  fitly  express  his  tempestuous  feelings.  He  is 
a  proud,  solitary  thinker.  Often  his  Weltschmerz 
wrests  scornful  criticism  of  his  surroundings  from 
him.  On  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  lack  mild, 
conciliatory  humor,  of  which  his  famous  drinking- 
song  is  a  good  illustration.  His  miserly  host  had 

1  For  Gabirol,   cmp.   A.    Geiger,   Salomon    Gabirol,    and    M. 
Sachs,  Die  religiose  Poesie  der  Juden  in  Spanien. 


2OO          HUMOR   AND  LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY 

put  a  single  bottle  of  wine  upon  a  table  surrounded 
by  many  guests,  who  had  to  have  recourse  to  water 
to  quench  their  thirst  Wine  he  calls  a  septuagena- 
rian, the  letters  of  the  Hebrew  word  for  wine  (yayirt] 
representing  seventy,  and  water  a  nonagenarian,  be- 
cause mayim  (water)  represents  ninety: 

WATER  SONG 
CHORUS: — Of  wine,  alas  !  there's  not  a  drop, 

Our  host  has  filled  our  goblets  to  the  top 
With  water. 

When  monarch  wine  lies  prone, 
By  water  overthrown, 
How  can  a  merry  song  be  sung  ? 
For  naught  there  is  to  wet  our  tongue 

But  water. 
CHORUS  : — Of  wine,  alas  !  etc. 

No  sweetmeats  can  delight 

My  dainty  appetite, 

For  I,  alas  !  must  learn  to  drink, 

However  I  may  writhe  and  shrink, 

Pure  water. 
CHORUS  : — Of  wine,  alas  !  etc. 

Give  Moses  praise,  for  he 

Made  waterless  a  sea — 

Mine  host  to  quench  my  thirst — the  churl  ! — 

Makes  streams  of  clearest  water  purl, 

Of  water. 
CHORUS  : — Of  wine,  alas  !  etc. 

To  toads  I  feel  allied, 

To  frogs  by  kinship  tied  ; 

For  water  drinking  is  no  joke, 

Ere  long  you  all  will  hear  me  croak 

Quack  water  ! 
CHORUS  : — Of  wine,  alas  !  etc. 


HUMOR  AND  LOVE  IN  JEWISH  POETRY       201 

May  God  our  host  requite  ; 
May  he  turn  Nazirite, 
Ne'er  know  intoxication's  thrill, 
Nor  e'er  succeed  his  thirst  to  still 

With  water  ! 
CHORUS  : — Of  wine,  alas  !  etc." 

Gabirol  was  a  bold  thinker,  a  great  poet  wrestling 
with  the  deepest  problems  of  human  thought,  and 
towering  far  above  his  contemporaries  and  imme- 
diate successors.  In  his  time  synagogue  poetry 
reached  the  zenith  of  perfection,  and  even  in  the 
solemn  admonitions  of  ritualistic  literature,  humor 
now  and  again  asserted  itself.  One  of  GabiroPs 
contemporaries  or  successors,  Isaac  ben  Yehuda  ibn 
Ghayyat,  for  instance,  often  made  his  whole  poem 
turn  upon  a  witticism. 

Among  the  writers  of  that  age,  a  peculiar  style 
called  "  mosaic  "  gradually  grew  up,  and  eventually 
became  characteristic  of  neo-Hebraic  poetry  and 
humor.  For  their  subjects  and  the  presentation  of 
their  thoughts,  they  habitually  made  use  of  biblical 
phraseology,  either  as  direct  quotations  or  with  an 
application  not  intended  by  the  original  context. 
In  the  latter  case,  well-known  sentences  were  in- 
vested with  new  meanings,  and  this  poetic-biblical 
phraseology  afforded  countless  opportunities  for  the 
exercise  of  humor,  of  which  neo-Hebraic  poetry 
availed  itself  freely.  The  "  mosaics  "  were  collected 
not  only  from  the  Bible;  the  Targum,  the  Mishna, 
and  the  Talmud  were  rifled  of  sententious  expres- 
sions, woven  together,  and  with  the  license  of  art 


i 


202          HUMOR  AND   LOVE  IN   JEWISH   POETRY 

placed  in  unexpected  juxtaposition.  An  example 
will  make  clear  the  method.  In  Genesis  xviii.'29, 
God  answers  Abraham's  petition  in  behalf  of  So- 
dom with  the  words :  "  I  will  not  do  it  for  the  sake 
of  forty,"  meaning,  as  everybody  knows,  that  forty 
men  would  suffice  to  save  the  city  from  destruc- 
tion. This  passage  Isaac  ben  Yehuda  ibn  Ghayyat 
audaciously  connects  with  Deuteronomy  xxv.  3, 
where  forty  is  also  mentioned,  the  forty  stripes  for 
misdemeanors  of  various  kinds: 

"  If  you  see  men  the  path  of  right  forsake, 
To  bring  them  back  you  must  an  effort  make. 
Perhaps,  if  they  but  hear  of  stripes,  they'll  quake, 
And  say,  'I'll  do  it  not  for  forty's  sake.'  " 

This  "  mosaic "  style,  suggesting  startling  con- 
trasts and  surprising  applications  of  Bible  thoughts 
and  words,  became  a  fruitful  source  of  Jewish  humor. 
If  a  theory  of  literary  descent  could  be  established, 
an  illustration  might  be  found  in  Heine's  rapid 
transitions  from  tender  sentiment  to  corroding  wit, 
a  modern  development  of  the  flashing  humor  of  the 
"  mosaic  "  style. 

The  "  Song  of  Songs  "  naturally  became  a  treas- 
ure-house of  "  mosaic  "  suggestions  for  the  purposes 
of  neo-Hebraic  love  poetry,  which  was  dominated, 
however,  by  Arab  influences.  The  first  poet  to  in- 
troduce the  sorrow  of  unhappy  love  into  neo-He- 
braic poetry  was  Moses  ibn  Ezra.  He  was  in  love 
with  his  niece,  who  probably  became  the  wife  of  one 
of  his  brothers,  and  died  early  on  giving  birth  to  a 


HUMOR   AND   LOVE   IN   JEWISH    POETRY         2O3 

son.  His  affection  at  first  was  requited,  but  his 
brothers  opposed  the  union,  and  the  poet  left  Spain, 
embittered  and  out  of  sorts  with  fate,  to  find  peace 
and  consolation  in  distant  lands.  Many  of  his 
poems  are  deeply  tinged  with  gloom  and  pessimism, 
and  the  natural  inference  is  that  those  in  which  he 
praises  nature,  and  wine,  and  "  bacchanalian  feasts 
under  leafy  canopies  with  merry  minstrelsy  of 
birds  "  belong  to  the  period  of  his  life  preceding  its 
unfortunate  turning-point,  when  love  still  smiled 
upon  him,  and  hope  was  strong. 

Some  of  his  poems  may  serve  as  typical  specimens 
of  the  love-poetry  of  those  days: 

"  With  hopeless  love  my  heart  is  sick, 

Confession  bursts  my  lips'  restraint. 
That  thou,  my  love,  dost  cast  me  off, 

Hath  touched  me  with  a  death-like  taint. 

I  view  the  land  both  near  and  far, 

To  me  it  seems  a  prison  vast. 
Throughout  its  breadth,  where'er  I  look, 

My  eyes  are  met  by  doors  locked  fast. 

And  though  the  world  stood  open  wide, 
Though  angel  hosts  filled  ev'ry  space, 

To  me  'twere  destitute  of  charm 
Didst  thou  withdraw  thy  face." 

Here  is  another: 

"  Perchance  in  days  to  come, 

When  men  and  all  things  change, 
They'll  marvel  at  my  love, 
And  call  it  passing  strange. 


2O4          HUMOR   AND   LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY 

Without  I  seem  most  calm, 

But  fires  rage  within — 
'Gainst  me,  as  none  before, 

Thou  didst  a  grievous  sin. 

What !  tell  the  world  my  woe  ! 

That  were  exceeding  vain. 

With  mocking  smile  they'd  say, 

'  You  know,  he  is  not  sane  !  ' ' 

When  his  lady-love  died,  he  composed  the  follow- 
ing elegy: 

"  In  pain  she  bore  the  son  wrho  her  embrace 

Would  never  know.     Relentless  death  spread  straight 
His  nets  for  her,  and  she,  scarce  animate, 

Unto  her  husband  signed  :     I  ask  this  grace, 

My  friend,  let  not  harsh  death  our  love  efface  ; 
To  our  babes,  its  pledges,  dedicate 
Thy  faithful  care  ;  for  vainly  they  await 

A  mother's  smile  each  childish  fear  to  chase. 

And  to  my  uncle,  prithee,  write.     Deep  pain 

I  brought  his  heart.     Consumed  by  love's  regret 

He  roved,  a  stranger  in  his  home.     I  fain 

Would  have  him  shed  a  tear,  nor  love  forget. 

He  seeketh  consolation's  cup,  but  first 

His  soul  with  bitterness  must  quench  its  thirst.'' 

Moses  ibn  Ezra's  cup  of  consolation  on  not  a  few 
occasions  seems  to  have  been  filled  to  overflowing 
with  wine.  In  no  other  way  can  the  joyousness  of 
his  drinking-songs  be  accounted  for.  The  follow- 
ing are  characteristic: 

'•  Wine  cooleth  man  in  summer's  heat, 
And  warmeth  him  in  winter's  sleet. 
My  buckler  'tis  'gainst  chilling  frost, 
My  shield  when  rays  of  sun  exhaust." 


HUMOR  AND   LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY         2O$ 

"  If  men  will  probe  their  inmost  heart, 
They  must  condemn  their  crafty  art : 
For  silver  pieces  they  make  bold 
To  ask  a  drink  of  liquid  gold." 

To  his  mistress,  naturally,  many  a  stanza  of  witty 
praise  and  coaxing  imagery  was  devoted: 

"My  love  is  like  a  myrtle  tree, 

When  at  the  dance  her  hair  falls  down. 
Her  eyes  deal  death  most  pitiless, 

Yet  who  would  dare  on  her  to  frown  ?  " 

"  Said  I  to  sweetheart :     '  Why  dost  thou  resent 
The  homage  to  thy  grace  by  old  men  paid  ? ' 
She  answered  me  with  question  pertinent : 
'  Dost  thou  prefer  a  widow  to  a  maid  ? ' ' 

To  his  love-poems  and  drinking-songs  must  be 
added  his  poems  of  friendship,  on  true  friends,  life's 
crowning  gift,  and  false  friends,  basest  of  creatures. 
He  has  justly  been  described  as  the  most  subjective 
of  neo-Hebraic  poets.  His  blithe  delight  in  love, 
exhaling  from  his  poems,  transfigured  his  ready 
humor,  which  instinctively  pierced  to  .the  ludicrous 
element  in  every  object  and  occurrence:  age  dyeing 
its  hair,  traitorous  friendship,  the  pride  of  wealth, 
or  separation  of  lovers. 

Yet  in  the  history  of  synagogue  literature  this 
poet  goes  by  the  name  Ha-Sallach,  "  penitential 
poet,"  on  account  of  his  many  religious  songs,  be- 
wailing  in  elegiac  measure  the  hollowness  of  life, 
and  the  vanity  of  earthly  possessions,  and  in  ardent 
words  advocating  humility,  repentance,  and  a  con- 


2O6          HUMOR  AND   LOVE   IN  JEWISH   POETRY 

trite  heart.     The  peculiarity  of  Jewish  humor  is  that 
it  returns  to  its  tragic  source. 

No  mediaeval  poet  so  markedly  illustrates  this 
characteristic  as  the  prince  of  neo-Hebraic  poetry, 
Yehuda  Halevi,  in  whose  poems  the  principle  of 
Jewish  national  poesy  attained  its  completest  expres- 
sion. They  are  the  idealized  reflex  of  the  soul  of 
the  Jewish  people,  its  poetic  emotions,  its  "  making 
for  righteousness,"  its  patriotic  love  of  race,  its  ca- 
pacity for  martyrdom.  Whatever  true  and  beauti- 
ful element  had  developed  in  Jewish  soul  life,  since 
the  day  when  Judah's  song  first  rang  out  in  Zion's 
accents  on  Spanish  soil,  greets  us  in  its  noblest 
garb  in  his  poetry.  A  modern  poet1  says  of  him: 

"  Ay,  he  was  a  master  singer, 
Brilliant  pole  star  of  his  age, 
Light  and  beacon  to  his  people  ! 
WondrouS  mighty  was  his  singing — 

Verily  a  fiery  pillar 
Moving  on  'fore  Israel's  legions, 
Restless  caravan  of  sorrow, 
Through  the  exile's  desert  plain." 

In  his  early  youth  the  muse  of  poetry  had  im- 
printed a  kiss  upon  Halevi's  brow,  and  the  gracious 
echo  of  that  kiss  trembles  through  all  the  poet's 
numbers.  Love,  too,  seems  early  to  have  taken  up 
an  abode  in  his  susceptible  heart,  but,  as  expressed 
in  the  poems  of  his  youth,  it  is  not  sensuous,  earthly 
love,  nor  Gabirol's  despondency  and  unselfish  grief, 

J  H.  Heine,  Romanzero. 


HUMOR  AND   LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY         2O7 

nor  even  the  sentiment  of  Moses  ibn  Ezra's  artistic- 
ally conceived  and  technically  perfect  love-plaint. 
It  is  tender,  yet  passionate,  frankly  extolling  the 
happiness  of  requited  love,  and  as  naively  miserable 
over  separation  from  his  mistress,  whom  he  calls 
Ophra  (fawn).  One  of  his  sweetest  songs  he  puts 
upon  her  lips: 

"  Into  my  eyes  he  loving  looked, 

My  arms  about  his  neck  were  twined, 
And  in  the  mirror  of  my  eyes, 
What  but  his  image  did  he  find  ? 

Upon  my  dark-hued  eyes  he  pressed 
His  lips  with  breath  of  passion  rare. 

The  rogue  !   'Twas  not  my  eyes  he  kissed  ; 
He  kissed  his  picture  mirrored  there." 

Ophra's  "  Song  of  Joy  "  reminds  one  of  the  pas- 
sion of  the  "  Song  of  Songs  " : 

"He  cometh,  O  bliss  ! 
Fly  swiftly,  ye  winds, 
Ye  odorous  breezes, 
And  tell  him  how  long 
I've  waited  for  this  ! 

O  happy  that  night, 
When  sunk  on  thy  breast, 
Thy  kisses  fast  falling, 
And  drunken  with  love, 
My  troth  I  did  plight. 

Again  my  sweet  friend 
Embraceth  me  close. 
Yes,  heaven  doth  bless  us, 
And  now  thou  hast  won 
My  love  without  end," 


2O8  HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRV 

His  mistress'  charms  he  describes  with  attractive 
grace: 

"My  sweetheart's  dainty  lips  are  red, 
With  ruby's  crimson  overspread  ; 
Her  teeth  are  like  a  string  of  pearls ; 
Adown  her  neck  her  clust'riiig  curls 
In  ebon  hue  vie  with  the  night ; 
And  o'er  her  features  dances  light. 

The  twinkling  stars  enthroned  above 
Are  sisters  to  my  dearest  love. 
We  men  should  count  it  joy  complete 
To  lay  our  service  at  her  feet. 
But  ah!  what  rapture  in  her  kiss! 
A  forecast  'tis  of  heav'nly  bliss  !  " 

When  the  hour  of  parting  from  Ophra  came,  the 
young  poet  sang: 

"And  so  we  twain  must  part !   Oh  linger  yet, 
Let  me  still  feed  my  glance  upon  thine  eyes. 

Forget  not,  love,  the  days  of  our  delight, 
And  I  our.nights  of  bliss  shall  ever  prize. 

In  dreams  thy  shadowy  image  I  shall  see, 
Oh  even  in  my  dream  be  kind  to  me  !  "  * 

Yehuda  Halevi  sang  not  only  of  love,  but  also, 
in  true  Oriental  fashion,  and  under  the  influence  of 
his  Arabic  models,  of  wine  and  friendship.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  is  entirely  original  in  his  epithala- 
miums,  charming  descriptions  of  the  felicity  of 
young  conjugal  life  and  the  sweet  blessings  of  pure 
love.  They  are  pervaded  by  the  intensity  of  joy, 

i  Translation  by  Emma  Lazarus.     [Tr.] 


HUMOR  AND   LOVE   IN   JEWISH    POETRY         2OQ 

and  full  of  roguish  allusions  to  the  young  wife's 
shamefacedness,  arousing  the  jest  and  merriment 
of  her  guests,  and  her  delicate  shrinking  in  the 
presence  of  longed-for  happiness.  Characteristic- 
ally enough  his  admonitions  to  feed  the  fire  of  love 
are  always  followed  by  a  sigh  for  his  people's  woes: 

"You  twain  will  soon  be  one, 

And  all  your  longing  filled. 
Ah  me  !  will  Israel's  hope 

For  freedom  e'er  be  stilled  ?  " 

It  is  altogether  probable  that  these  blithesome 
songs  belong  to  the  poet's  early  life.  To  a  friend 
who  remonstrates  with  him  for  his  love  of  wine  he 
replies : 

"  My  years  scarce  number  twenty-one — 
Wouldst  have  me  now  the  wine-cup  shun  ?" 

which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  love  and  wine 
were  the  pursuits  of  his  youth.  One  of  his  prettiest 
drinking  songs  is  the  following: 

"My  bowl  yields  exultation — 

I  soar  aloft  on  song-tipped  wing, 
Each  draught  is  inspiration, 

My  lips  sip  wine,  my  mouth  must  sing. 

Dear  friends  are  full  of  horror, 

Predict  a  toper's  end  for  me. 
They  ask  :     '  How  long,  O  sorrow, 

Wilt  thou  remain  wine's  devotee  ? ' 

Why  should  I  not  sing  praise  of  drinking  ? 

The  joys  of  Eden  it  makes  mine. 
If  age  will  bring  no  cowardly  shrinking, 

Full  many  a  year  will  I  drink  wine." 


2IO          HUMOR  AND   LOVE  IN  JEWISH    POETRY 

But  little  is  known  of  the  events  of  the  poet's 
career.  History's  niggardliness,  however,  has  been 
compensated  for  by  the  prodigality  of  legend,  which 
has  woven  many  a  fanciful  tale  about  his  life.  Of 
one  fact  we  are  certain:  when  he  had  passed  his 
fiftieth  year,  Yehuda  Halevi  left  his  native  town, 
his  home,  his  family,  his  friends,  and  disciples,  to 
make  a  pilgrimage  to  Palestine,  the  land  wherein 
his  heart  had  always  dwelt.  His  itinerary  can  be 
traced  in  his  songs.  They  lead  us  to  Egypt,  to 
Zoan,  to  Damascus.  In  Tyre  silence  suddenly  falls 
upon  the  singer.  Did  he  attain  the  goal  he  had  set 
out  to  reach?  Did  his  eye  behold  the  land  of  his 
fathers?  Or  did  death  overtake  the  pilgrim  singer 
before  his  journey's  end?  Legend  which  has  beau- 
tified his  life  has  transfigured  his  death.  It  is  said, 
that  struck  by  a  Saracen's  horse  Yehuda  Halevi 
sank  down  before  the  very  gates  of  Jerusalem.  With 
its  towers  and  battlements  in  sight,  and  his  inspired 
"  Lay  of  Zion  "  on  his  lips,  his  pure  soul  winged  its 
flight  heavenward. 

Witklhe  deattuof  Yehuda  Halevi,  the  golden  age 
of  neo-Hebraic  poetry  in  Spain  came  to  an  end,  jind 
the  period  of  the  epigones  was"  inaugurated.  X" 
note  of  hesitancy  is  discernible  in  their  productions, 
and  they  acknowledge  the  superiority  of  their  pre- 
decessors in  the  epithet  "  fathers  of  song "  applied 
to  them.  The  most  noted  of  the  later  writers  was 
Yehuda  ben  Solomon  Charisi.  Fortune  marked 
him  ouTto  be  the  critic  of  the  great  poetic  creations 
of  the  brilliant  epoch  just  closed,  and  his  fame  rests 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY          211 

upon  the  skill  with  which  he  acquitted  himself  of  his 
difficult  task.  As  for  his  poetry,  it  lacks  the  depth, 
the  glow,  the  virility,  and  inspiration  of  the  works 
of  the  classical  period.  He  was  a  restless  wanderer, 
a  poet  tramp,  roving  in  the  Orient,  in  Africa,  and 
in  Europe.  His  most  important  work  is  his  divan 
Tachkemoni,  testifying  to  his  powers  as  a  humorist, 
and  especially  to  his  mastery  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage, which  he  uses  with  dexterity  never  excelled. 
The  divan  touches  upon  every  possible  subject: 
God  and  nature,  human  life  and  suffering,  the  rela- 
tions between  men,  his  personal  experiences,  and  his 
adventures  in  foreign  parts.  The  first  Makamat1 
writer  among  Jews,  he  furnished  the  model  for  all 
poems  of  the  kind  that  followed;  their  first  genuine 
humorist,  he  flashes  forth  his  wit  like  a  stream  of 
light  suddenly  turned  on  in  the  dark.  That  he 
measured  the  worth  of  his  productions  by  the  gen- 
erous meed  of  praise  given  by  his  contemporaries  is 
a  venial  offense  in  the  time  of  the  troubadours  and 
minnesingers.  Charisi  was  particularly  happy  in 
his  use  of  the  "  mosaic  "  style,  and  his  short  poems 
and  epigrams  are  most  charming.  Deep  melan- 
choly is  a  foil  to  his  humor,  but  as  often  his  writings 
are  disfigured  by  levity.  The  following  may  serve 
as  samples  of  his  versatile  muse.  The  first  is  ad- 
dressed to  his  grey  hair: 

''Those  ravens  black  that  rested 

Erstwhile  upon  rny  head, 
Within  my  heart  have  nested, 
Since  from  my  hair  they  fled." 

1  See  note,  p.  34.  [Tr.] 


212  HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

The  second  is  inscribed  to  love's  tears: 

"  Within  my  heart  I  held  concealed 

My  love  so  tender  and  so  true  ; 
But  overflowing  tears  revealed 

What  I  would  fain  have  hid  from  view. 
My  heart  could  evermore  repress 
The  woe  that  tell-tale  tears  confess." 

Charisi  is  at  his  best  when  he  gives  the  rein  to  his 
humor.  Sparks  fly;  he  stops  at  no  caustic  witticism, 
recoils  from  no  satire;  he  is  malice  itself,  and  puts 
no  restraint  upon  his  levity.  The  "  Flea  Song  "  is 
a  typical  illustration  of  his  impish  mood: 

"  You  ruthless  flea,  who  desecrate  my  couch, 
And  draw  my  blood  to  sate  your  appetite, 
You  know  not  rest,  on  Sabbath  day  or  feast — 
Your  feast  it  is  when  you  can  pinch  and  bite. 

My  friends  expound  the  law  :  to  kill  a  flea 
Upon  the  Sabbath  day  a  sin  they  call ; 

But  I  prefer  that  other  law  which  says, 
Be  sure  a  murd'rer's  malice  to  forestall." 

That  Charisi  was  a  boon  companion  is  evident 
from  the  following  drinking  song : 

"  Here  under  leafy  bowers, 

Where  coolest  shades  descend, 
Crowned  with  a  wreath  of  flowers, 
Here  will  we  drink,  my  friend. 

Who  drinks  of  wine,  he  learns 

That  noble  spirits'  strength 
But  steady  increase  earns, 

As  years  stretch  out  in  length. 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY         213 

A  thousand  earthly  years 

Are  hours  in  God's  sight, 
A  year  in  heav'n  appears 

A  minute  in  its  flight. 

I  would  this  lot  were  mine  : 

To  live  by  heav'nly  count, 
And  drink  and  drink  old  wine 

At  youth's  eternal  fount." 

Charisi  and  his  Arabic  models  found  many  imi- 
tators among  Spanish  Jews.  Solomon  ibn  Sakbel 
wrote  Hebrew  Makamat  which  may  be  regarded  as 
an  attempt  at  a  satire  in  the  form  of  a  romance.  The 
hero,  Asher  ben  Yehuda,  a  veritable  Don  Juan, 
passes  through  most  remarkable  adventures.1  The 
introductory  Makama,  describing  life  with  his  mis- 
tress in  the  solitude  of  a  forest,  is  delicious.  Tired 
of  his  monotonous  life,  he  joins  a  company  of  con- 
vivial fellows,  who  pass  their  time  in  carousal. 
While  with  them,  he  receives  an  enigmatic  love  let- 
ter signed  by  an  unknown  woman,  and  he  sets  out 
to  find  her.  On  his  wanderings,  oppressed  by  love's 
doubts,  he  chances  into  a  harem,  and  is  threatened 
with  death  by  its  master.  It  turns  out  that  the 
pasha  is  a  beautiful  woman,  the  slave  of  his  mys- 
terious lady-love,  and  she  promises  him  speedy  ful- 
filment of  his  wishes.  Finally,  close  to  the  attain- 
ment of  his  end,  he  discovers  that  his  beauty  is  a 
myth,  the  whole  a  practical  joke  perpetrated  by  his 
merry  companions.  So  Asher  ben  Yehuda  in  quest 
of  his  mistress  is*  led  from  adventure  to  adventure. 

1 J.  Schor  in  He-Chaluz,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  154  f. 


214  HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

Internal  evidence  testifies  against  the  genuine- 
ness of  this  romance,  but  at  the  same  time  with  it 
appeared  two  other  mock-heroic  poems,  "The 
Book  of  Diversions  "  (Sefer  Shaashuim)  by  Joseph 
ibn  Sabara,  and  "  The  Gift  of  Judah  the  Misogy- 
nist "  (Mine hath  Yehuda  Soneh  ha-Nashini)  by  Ju- 
dah ibn  Sabbata'i,  a  Cordova  physician,  whose 
poems  Charisi  praised  as  the  "  fount  of  poesy."  The 
plot  of  his  "  Gift,"  a  satire  on  women,  is  as  fol- 
lows:1 His  dying  father  exacts  from  Serach,  the  hero 
of  the  romance,  a  promise  never  to  marry,  women 
in  his  sight  being  the  cause  of  all  the  evil  in 
the  world.  Curious  as  the  behest  is,  it  is  still 
more  curious  that  Serach  uncomplainingly  com- 
plies, and  most  curious  of  all,  that  he  finds  three 
companions  willing  to  retire  with  him  to  a  distant 
island,  whence  their  propaganda  for  celibacy  is  to 
proceed.  Scarcely  has  the  news  of  their  arrival 
spread,  when  a  mass  meeting  of  women  is  called, 
and  a  coalition  formed  against  the  misogynists. 
Korbi,  an  old  hag,  engages  to  make  Serach  faithless 
to  his  principles.  He  soon  has  a  falling  out  with 
his  fellow-celibates,  and  succumbs  to  the  fascina- 
tions of  a  fair  young  temptress.  After  the  wedding 
he  discovers  that  his  enemies,  the  women,  have  sub- 
stituted for  his  beautiful  bride,  a  hideous  old  wo- 
man, Blackcoal,  the  daughter  of  Owl.  She  at  once 
assumes  the  reins  of  government  most  energetic- 
ally, and  answers  her  husband's  groan  of  despair  by 
the  following  curtain  lecture:. 

1  S.  Stein  iti  Freitagabend,  p.  645  ^. 


HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY         215 

"  Up  !  up  !  the  time  for  sleep  is  past ! 
And  110  resistance  will  I  brook  ! 
Away  with  thee,  and  look  to  it 
That  thou  briiigst  me  what  I  ask  : 
Gowns  of  costly  stuff, 
Earrings,  chains,  and  veils  ; 
A  house  with  many  windows  ; 
Mortars,  lounges,  sieves, 
Baskets,  kettles,  pots, 
Glasses,  settles,  brooms, 
Beakers,  closets,  flasks, 
Shovels,  basins,  bowls, 
Spindle,  distaff,  blankets, 
Buckets,  ewers,  barrels, 
Skillets,  forks,  and  knives  ; 
Vinaigrettes  and  mirrors  ; 
Kerchiefs,  turbans,  reticules, 
Crescents,  amulets, 
Rings  and  jewelled  clasps  ; 
Girdles,  buckles,  bodices, 
Kirtles,  caps,  and  waists  ; 
Garments  finely  spun, 
Rare  byssus  from  the  East. 
This  and  more  shalt  thou  procure, 
No  matter  at  what  cost  and  sacrifice. 
Thou  art  affrighted  ?     Thou  weepest  ? 
My  dear,  spare  all  this  agitation ; 
Thou'lt  suffer  more  than  this. 
The  first  year  shall  pass  in  strife, 
The  second  will  see  thee  a  beggar. 
A  prince  erstwhile,  thou  shalt  become  a  slave  ; 
Instead  of  a  crown, thou  shalt  wear  a  wreath  of  straw." 

Serach  in  abject  despair  turns  for  comfort  to  his 
three  friends,  and  it  is  decided  to  bring  suit  for  di- 
vorce in  a  general  assembly.  The  women  ap- 
pear at  the  meeting,  and  demand  that  the  despiser 


2l6          HUMOR  AND   LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY 

of  their  sex  be  forced  to  keep  his  ugly  wife.  One 
of  the  trio  of  friends  proposes  that  the  matter  be 
brought  before  the  king.  The  poet  appends  no 
moral  to  his  tale;  he  leaves  it  to  his  readers  to  say: 
^" And  such  must  be  the  fate  of  all  woman-haters!" 

Judah  Sabbatai  was  evidently  far  from  being  a 
woman-hater  himself,  but  some  of  his  contempor- 
aries failed  to  understand  the  point  of  his  witticisms 
and  ridiculous  situations.  Yedaya  Penini,  another 
poet,  looked  upon  it  as  a  serious  production,  and  in 
his  allegory,  "  Woman's  Friend,"  destitute  of  poetic 
inspiration,  but  brilliant  in  dialectics,  undertook  the 
defense  of  the  fair  sex  against  the  misanthropic  as- 
persions of  the  woman-hater. 

Such  works  are  evidence  that  we  have  reached 
the  age  of  the  troubadours  and  minnesingers,  the 
epoch  of  the  Renaissance,  when,  under  the  blue  sky 
of  Italy,  and  the  fostering  care  of  the  trio  of  master- 
poets,  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio,  the  first 
germs  of  popular  poetry  were  unfolding.  The 
Italian  Jews  were  carried  along  by  the  all-pervading 
spirit  of  the  times,  and  had  a  share  in  the  vigorous 
mental  activity  about  them.  Suggestions  derived 
from  the  work  of  the  Renaissance  leaders  fell  like 
electric  sparks  into  Jewish  literature  and  science, 
lighting  them  up,  and  bringing  them  into  rapport 
with  the  products  of  the  'humanistic  movement. 
Provence,  the  land  of  song,  gave  birth  to  Kalony- 
mos  ben  Kalonymos,  later  a  resident  of  Italy, 
whose  work,  "Touchstone"  (Eben  Bochari]  is  the 
first  true  satire  in  neo-Hebraic  poetry.  It  is  a 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 


mirror  of  morals  held  up  before  his  people,  for 
high  and  low,  rabbjs  and  leaders,  poets  and 
scholars,  rich  and  poor,  to  see  their  foibles 
and  follies.  The  satire  expresses  a  humorous,  but 
lofty  conception  of  life,  based  upon  profound 
morality  and  sincere  faith.  It  fulfils  every  re- 
quirement of  a  satire,  steering  clear  of  the  pitfall 
caricature,  and  not  obtruding  the  didactic  element. 
The  lesson  to  be  conveyed  is  involved  in,  not  stated 
apart  from  the  satire,  an  emanation  from  the  poet's 
disposition.  His  aim  is  not  to  ridicule,  but  to  im- 
prove, instruct,  influence.  One  of  the  most  amus- 
ing chapters  is  that  on  woman's  superior  advantages, 
which  make  him  bewail  his  having  been  born  a 
man:1 

"  Truly,  God's  hand  lies  heavy  on  him 
Who  has  been  created  a  man  : 
Full  many  a  trial  he  must  patiently  bear, 
And  scorn  and  contumely  of  every  kind. 
His  life  is  like  a  field  laid  waste  — 
Fortunate  he  is  if  it  lasts  not  too  long  ! 
Were  I,  for  instance,  a  woman, 
How  smooth  and  pleasant  were  my  course. 
A  circle  of  intimate  friends 
Would  call  me  gentle,  graceful,  modest. 
Comfortably  I'd  sit  with  them  and  sew, 
With  one  or  two  mayhap  at  the  spinning  wheel. 
On  moonlight  nights 
Gathered  for  cozy  confidences, 
About  the  hearthfire,  or  in  the  dark, 
We'd  tell  each  other  what  the  people  say, 
The  gossip  of  the  town,  the  scandals, 

1  H.  A.  Meisel,  Der  Priif  stein  des  Kalonymos* 


2l8  HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

Discuss  the  fashions  and  the  last  election. 

I  surely  would  rise  above  the  average — 

I  would  be  an  artist  needlewoman, 

Broidering  on  silk  and  velvet 

The  flowers  of  the  field, 

And  other  patterns,  copied  from  models, 

So  rich  in  color  as  to  make  them  seem  nature — 

Petals,  trees,  blossoms,  plants,  and  pots, 

And  castles,  pillars,  temples,  angel  heads, 

And  whatever  else  can  be  imitated  with  needle  by  her 

Who  guides  it  with  art  and  skill. 

Sometimes,  too,  though  'tis  not  so  attractive, 

I  should  consent  to  play  the  cook — 

No  less  important  task  of  woman  'tis 

To  watch  the  kitchen  most  carefully. 

I  should  not  be  ruffled 

By  dust  and  ashes  on  the  hearth,  by  soot  on  stoves  and  pots  ; 

Nor  would  I  hesitate  to  swing  the  axe 

And  chop  the  firewood, 

And  not  to  feed  and  rake  the  fire  up, 

Despite  the  ashy  dust  that  fills  the  nostrils. 

My  particular  delight  it  would  be 

To  taste  of  all  the  dishes  served. 

And  if  some  merry,  joyous  festival  approached, 

Then  would  I  display  my  taste. 

I  would  choose  most  brilliant  gems  for  ear  and  hand, 

For  neck  and  breast,  for  hair  and  gown, 

Most  precious  stuffs  of  silk  and  velvet, 

Whatever  in  clothes  and  jewels  would  increase  my  charms. 

And  on  the  festal  day,  I  would  loud  rejoice, 

Sing,  and  sway  myself,  and  dance  with  vim. 

When  I  reached  a  maiden's  prime, 

With  all  my  charms  at  their  height, 

What  happiness,  were  heaven  to  favor  me, 

Permit  me  to  draw  a  prize  in  life's  lottery, 

A  youth  of  handsome  mien,  brave  and  true, 

Wjth  heart  filled  with  love  for  me, 


HUMOR   AND   LOVE   IN   JEWISH    POETRY         2IQ 

If  he  declared  his  passion, 

I  would  return  his  love  with  all  my  might. 

Then  as  his  wife,  I  would  live  a  princess, 

Reclining  on  the  softest  pillows, 

My  beauty  heightened  by  velvet,  silk,  and  tulle, 

By  pearls  and  golden  ornaments, 

Which  he  with  lavish  love  would  bring  to  me, 

To  add  to  his  delight  and  mine." 

After  enumerating  additional  advantages  enjoyed 
by  the  gentler  sex,  the  poet  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  protesting  against  fate  is  vain,  and  closes  his 
chapter  thus: 

"  Well,  then,  I'll  resign  myself  to  fate, 

And  seek  consolation  in  the  thought  that  lit'e  comes  to  an  end. 
Our  sages  tell  us  everywhere 
That  for  all  things  we  must  praise  God, 
With  loud  rejoicing  for  all  good, 
In  submission  for  evil  fortune. 
So  I  will  force  my  lips, 

However  they  may  resist,  to  say  the  olden  blessing: 
My  Lord  and  God  accept  my  thanks 
That  thou  has  made  of  me  a  man." 

One  of  Kalonymos's  friends  was  Immanuel  ben 
Solomon  of  Rome,  called  the  "  Heine  of  the  middle 
ages,"  and  sometimes  the  "Jewish  Voltaire." 
Neither  comparison  is  apt.  On  the  one  hand, 
they  give  him  too  high  a  place  as  a  writer,  on  the 
other,  they  do  not  adequately  indicate  his  character- 
istic qualities.  His  most  important  work,  the 
Mechabberoth,  is  a  collection  of  disjointed  pieces, 
full  of  bold  witticisms,  poetic  thoughts,  and  linguis- 


22O          HUMOR   AND    LOVE   IN  JEWISH    POETRY 

tic  charms.  It  is  composed  of  poems,  Makamat, 
parodies,  novels,  epigrams,  distichs,  and  sonnets — 
all  essentially  humorous.  The  poet  presents  things 
as  they  are,  leaving  it  to  reality  to  create  ridicu- 
lous situations.  He  is  witty  rather  than  humorous. 
Rarely  only  a  spark  of  kindliness  or  the  glow  of 
poetry  transfigures  his  wit.  He  is  uniformly  objec- 
tive, scintillating,  cold,  often  frivolous,  and  not 
always  chaste.  To  produce  a  comic  effect,  to  make 
his  readers  laugh  is  his  sole  desire.  Friend  and 
admirer  of  Dante,  he  attained  to  a  high  degree  of 
skill  in  the  sonnet.  In  neo-Hebraic  poetry,  his 
works  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch.  Indeli- 
cate witticisms  and  levity,  until  then  sporadic  in 
Jewish  literature,  were  by  him  introduced  as  a  regu- 
lar feature.  The  poetry  of  the  earlier  writers  had 
dwelt  upon  the  power  of  love,  their  muse  was  mod- 
est and  chaste,  a  "  rose  of  Sharon,"  a  "  lily  of  the 
valleys."  ImmanuePs  was  of  coarser  fibre ;  his  witty 
sallies  remind  one  of  Italian  rather  than  Hebrew 
models.  A  recent  critic  of  Hebrew  poetry  speaks 
of  his  Makamat  as  a  pendant  to  "Tristan  and 
Isolde," — in  both  sensuality  triumphs  over  spiritu- 
ality. He  is  at  his  best  in  his  sonnets,  and  of  these 
the  finest  are  in  poetic  prose.  Female  beauty  is  an 
unfailing  source  of  inspiration  to  him,  but  of  trust  in 
womankind  he  has  none: 

"  No  woman  ever  faithful  hold, 
Unless  she  ugly  be  and  old." 

The  full  measure  of  mockery  he  poured  out  upon 
a  deceived  husband,  and  the  most  cutting  sarcasm  at 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY         221 

his  command  against  an  enemy  is  a  comparison  to 
crabbed,  ugly  women: 

'•  I  loathe  him  with  the  hot  and  honest  hate 
That  fills  a  rake  'gainst  maids  ho  cm  not  bait, 
With  which  an  ugly  hag  her  r^la^s  reviles, 
And  prostitutes  the  youths  who  'scape  their  wiles." 

His  devotion  to  woman's  beauty  is  altogether  in 
the  spirit  of  his  Italian  contemporaries.  One  of  his 
most  pleasing  sonnets  is  dedicated  to  his  lady-love's 
eyes  :* 

"  My  sweet  gazelle  !     From  thy  bewitching  eyes 

A  glance  thrills  all  my  soul  with  wild  delight. 

Unfathomed  depths  beam  forth  a  world  so  bright — 
With  rays  of  sun  its  sparkling  splendor  vies — 
One  look  within  a  mortal  deifies. 

Thy  lips,  the  gates  wherethrough  dawn  wings  its  flight, 

Adorn  a  face  suffused  with  rosy  light, 
Whose  radiance  puts  to  shame  the  vaulted  skies. 
Two  brilliant  stars  are  they  from  heaven  sent — 

Their  charm  I  cannot  otherwise  explain — 
By  God  but  for  a  little  instant  lent, 

Who  gracious  doth  their  lustrous  glory  deign, 
To  teach  those  on  pursuit  of  beauty  bent, 

Beside  those  eyes  all  other  beauty's  vain." 

ImmanuePs  most  congenial  work,  however,  is  as 
a  satirist.  One  of  his  best  known  poems  is  a  chain 
of  distichs,  drawing  a  comparison  between  two 
maidens,  Tamar  the  beautiful,  and  Beria  the 
homely: 

Ftirst  in  Illustrirte  Monatshefte,  Vol.  I.,  p. 


222  HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

"  Tamar  raises  her  eyelids,  and  stars  appear  in  the  sky  ; 

Her  glance  drops  to  earth,  and  flowers  clothe  the  knoll 
whereon  she  stands. 

Beria  looks  up,  and  basilisks  die  of  terror  ; 

Be  not  amazed  ;  'tis  a  sight  that  would  Satan  affright 

Tamar's  divine  form  human  language  cannot  describe  ; 

The  gods  themselves  believe  her  heaven's  offspring. 

Beria's  presence  is  desirable  only  in  the  time  of  vintage, 

\Vhen  the  Evil  One  can  be  banished  by  naught  but  grimaces. 

Tamar  !  Had  Moses  seen  thee  he  had  never  made  the  ser- 
pent of  copper, 

With  thy  image  he  had  healed  mankind. 

Beria  !     Pain  seizes  me,  physic  soothes, 

I  catch  sight  of  thee,  and  it  returns  with  full  force. 

Tamar,  with  ringlets  adorned,  greets  early  the  sun, 

\Vho  quickly  hides,  ashamed  of  his  bald  pate. 

Beria  !  were  I  to  meet  thee  on  New  Year's  Day  in  the  mom- 
ing, 

An  omen  'twere  of  an  inauspicious  year. 

Tamar  smiles,  and  heals  the  heart's  bleeding  wounds  ; 

She  raises  her  head,  the  stars  slink  out  of  sight. 

Beria  it  were  well  to  transport  to  heaven, 

Then  surely  heaven  would  take  refuge  on  earth. 

Tamar  resembles  the  moon  in  all  respects  but  one — 

Her  resplendent  beauty  never  suffers  obscuration. 

Beria  partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  gods  ;  'tis  said, 

None  beholds  the  gods  without  most  awful  repentance. 

Tamar,  were  the  Virgin  like  thee,  never  would  the  sun 

Pass  out  of  Virgo  to  shine  in  Libra. 

Beria,  dost  know  why  the  Messiah  tarries  to  bring  deliver- 
ance to  men  ? 

Redemption  time  has  long  arrived,  but  he  hides  from  thee." 

With  amazement  we  see  the  Hebrew  muse,  so 
serious  aforetimes,  participate  in  truly  bacchanalian 
dances  under  ImmanuePs  guidance.  It  is  curious 


HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY          223 

that  while,  on  the  one  hand,  he  shrinks  from  no 
frivolous  utterance  or  indecent  allusion,  on  the 
other,  he  is  dominated  by  deep  earnestness  and 
genuine  warmth  of  feeling,  when  he  undertakes  to 
defend  or  expound  the  fundamentals  of  faith.  It 
is  characteristic  of  the  trend  of  his  thought  that  he 
epitomizes  the  "Song  of  Songs"  in  the  sentence: 
"  Love  is  the  pivot  of  the  Torah?  By  a  bold  hy- 
pothesis it  is  assumed  that  in  Daniel,  his  guide  in 
Paradise  (in  the  twenty-eighth  canto  of  his  poem), 
he  impersonated  and  glorified  his  great  friend 
Dante.  If  true,  this  would  be  an  interesting  indica- 
tion of  the  intimate  relations  existing  between  a  Jew 
and  a  circle  devoted  to  the  development  of  the  na- 
tional genius  in  literature  and  language,  and  the 
stimulating  of  the  sense  of  nature  and  truth  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  fantastic  visions  and  grotesque  ideals 
of  the  past. 

Everywhere,  not  only  in  Italy,  the  Renaissance 
and  the  humanistic  movement  attract  Jews.  Among 
early  Castilian  troubadours  there  is  a  Jew,  and  the 
last  troubadour  of  Spain  again  is  a  Jew.  Naturally 
Italian  Jews  are  more  profoundly  than  others 
affected  by  the  renascence  of  science  and  art.  David 
ben  Yehuda,  Messer  Leon,  is  the  author  of  an  epic, 
Shebach  Nashim  ("  Praise  of  Women  "),  in  which 
occurs  an  interesting  reference  to  Petrarch's  Laura, 
whom,  in  opposition  to  the  consensus  of  opinion 
among  his  contemporaries,  he  considers,  not  a  fig- 
ment of  the  imagination,  but  a  woman  of  flesh  and 
blood.  Praise  and  criticism  of  women  are  favorite 


224  HUMOR    AND    I.OVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

themes  in  the  poetic  polemics  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. For  instance,  Jacob  ben  Elias,  of  Fano,  in  his 
"  Shields  of  Heroes,"  a  small  collection  of  songs  in 
stanzas  of  three  verses,  ventures  to  attack  the  weaker 
sex,  for  which  Judah  Tommo  of  Porta  Leone  at 
once  takes  up  the  cudgels  in  his  "  Women's  Shield." 
At  the  same  time  a  genuine  song  combat  broke  out 
between  Abraham  of  Sarteano  and  Elias  of  Gen- 
zano.  The  latter  is  the  champion  of  the  purity  of 
womanhood,  impugned  by  the  former,  who  in  fifty 
tercets  exposes  the  wickedness  of  woman  in  the  most 
infamous  of  her  sex,  from  Lilith  to  Jezebel,  from 
Semiramis  to  Medea.  An  anonymous  combatant 
lends  force  to  his  strictures  by  an  arraignment  of 
the  lax  morals  of  the  women  of  their  own  time, 
while  a  fourth  knight  of  song,  evidently  intending 
to  conciliate  the  parties,  begins  his  "  Xew  Song," 
only  a  fragment  of  which  has  reached  us,  with 
praise,  and  ends  it  with  blame,  of  woman.  Such 
productions,  too,  are  a  result  of  the  Renaissance,  of 
its  romantic  current,  which,  as  it  affected  Catholi- 
cism, did  not  fail  to  leave  its  mark  upon  the  Jews, 
among  whom  romanticists  must  have  had  many  a 
battle  to  fight  with  adherents  of  traditional  views. 

Meantime,  neo-Hebraic  poetry  had  "  fallen  into 
the  sear,  the  yellow  leaf."  Poetry  drooped  under 
the  icy  breath  of  rationalism,  and  vanished  into  the 
abyss  of  the  Kabbala.  At  most  we  occasionally 
hear  of  a  polemic  poem,  a  keen-edged  epigram.  For 
the  rest,  there  was  only  a  monotonous  succession 
of  religious  poems,  repeating  the  old  formulas,  dry 


HUMOR    AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY          225 

bones  of  habit  and  tradition,  no  longer  informed 
with  true  poetic,  religious  spirit.  Yet  the  source  of 
love  and  humor  in  Jewish  poetry  had  not  run  dry. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  the  sentimentalism  of  the 
minneservice,  peculiar  to  the  middle  ages,  never 
took  root  in  Jewish  soil.  Pale  resignation,  morbid 
despair,  longing  for  death,  unmanly  indulgence  in 
regret,  all  the  paraphernalia  of  chivalrous  love,  ex- 
tolled in  every  key  in  the  poetry  of  the  middle  ages, 
were  foreign  to  the  sane  Jewish  mind.  Women,  the 
object  of  unreasoning  adulation,  shared  the  fate  of 
all  sovereign  powers:  homage  worked  their  ruin. 
They  became  accustomed  to  think  that  the  weal  and 
woe  of  the  world  depended  upon  their  constancy  or 
disloyalty.  Jews  alone  were  healthy  enough  to 
subordinate  sexual  love  to  reverence  for  maternity. 
Holding  an  exalted  idea  of  love,  they  realized  that 
its  power  extends  far  beyond  the  lives  of  two  per- 
sons, and  affects  the  well-being  of  generations  un- 
born. Such  love,  intellectual  love,  which  Benedict 
Spinoza  was  the  first  to  define  from  a  scientific  and 
philosophic  point  of  view,  looks  far  down  the  vistas 
of  the  future,  and  gives  providential  thought  to  the 
race. 

While  humor  and  romanticism  everywhere  in  the 
middle  ages  appeared  as  irreconcilable  contrasts,  by 
Jews  they  were  brought  into  harmonious  relation- 
ship. When  humor  was  banished  from  poetry,  it 
took  refuge  in  Jewish-German  literature,  that  spir- 
itual undercurrent  produced  by  the  claims  of  fancy 
as  opposed  to  the  aggressive,  all  absorbing  de- 


226  HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN    JEWISH    POETRY 

mands  of  reason.  Not  to  the  high  and  mighty,  but 
to  the  lowly  in  spirit,  the  little  ones  of  the  earth,  to 
women  and  children,  it  made  its  appeal,  and  from 
them  its  influence  spread  throughout  the  nation, 
bringing  refreshment  and  sustenance  to  weary, 
starved  minds,  hope  to  the  oppressed,  and  consola- 
tion to  the  afflicted.  Consolation,  indeed,  was  sorely 
needed  by  the  Jews  on  their  peregrinations  during 
the  middle  ages.  Sad,  inexpressibly  sad,  was  their 
condition.  With  fatal  exclusiveness  they  devoted 
themselves  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud.  Secular 
learning  was  deprecated ;  antagonism  to  science  and 
vagaries  characterized  their  intellectual  life;  philos- 
ophy was  formally  interdicted;  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage neglected ;  all  their  wealth  and  force  of  intel- 
lect lavished  upon  the  study  of  the  Law,  and  even 
here  every  faculty — reason,  ingenuity,  speculation — 
busied  itself  only  with  highly  artificial  solu- 
tions of  equally  artificial  problems,  far-fetched 
complications,  and  vexatious  contradictions  in- 
vented to  be  harmonized.  Under  such  grievous 
circumstances,  oppression  growing  with  malice,  Jew- 
ish minds  and  hearts  were  robbed  of  humor,  and 
the  exercise  of  love  was  made  a  difficult  task.  Is  it 
astonishing  that  in  such  days  a  rabbi  in  the  remote 
Slavonic  East  should  have  issued  an  injunction  re- 
straining his  sisters  in  faith  from  reading  romances 
on  the  Sabbath — romances  composed  by  some  other 
rabbi  in  Provence  or  Italy  five  hundred  years  be- 
fore? 

Sorrow  and  suffering  are  not  endless.     A  new  day 


HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY          22/ 

broke  for  the  Jews.  The  walls  of  the  Ghetto  fell,, 
dry  bones  joined  each  other  for  new  life,  and  a  fresh 
spirit  passed  over  the  House  of  Israel.  Enervation 
and  decadence  were  succeeded  by  regeneration, 
quickened  by  the  spirit  of  the  times,  by  the  ideas  of 
freedom  and  equality  universally  advocated.  The 
forces  which  culminated  in  their  revival  had  existed 
as  germs  in  the  preceding  century.  Silently  they 
had  grown,  operating  through  every  spiritual  me- 
dium, poetry,  oratory,  philosophy,  political  agita- 
tion. In  the  sunshine  of  the  eighteenth  century 
they  finally  matured,  and  at  its  close  the  rejuvena- 
tion of  the  Jewish  race  was  an  accomplished  fact  in 
every  European  country.  Eagerly  its  sons  entered 
into  the  new  intellectual  and  literary  movements  of 
the  nations  permitted  to  enjoy  another  period  of  ef- 
florescence, and  Jewish  humor  has  conquered  a 
place  for  itself  in  modern  literature. 

Our  brief  journey  through  the  realm  of  love  and 
humor  must  certainly  convince  us  that  in  sunny 
days  humor  rarely,  love  never,  forsook  Israel.  Our 
old  itinerant  preachers  (Maggidim),  strolling  from 
town  to  town,  were  in  the  habit  of  closing  their  ser- 
mons with  a  parable  (Mashai],  which  opened  the 
way  to  exhortation.  The  manner  of  our  fathers 
recommends  itself  to  me,  and  following  in  their 
footsteps,  I  venture  to  close  my  pilgrimage  through 
the  ages  with  a  MashaL  It  transports  us  to  the 
sunny  Orient,  to  the  little  seaport  town  of  Jabneh, 
about  six  miles  from  Jerusalem,  in  the  time  imme- 
diately succeeding  the  destruction  of  the  Temple, 


228  HUMOR   AND    LOVE    IN   JEWISH    POETRY 

Thither  with  a  remnant  of  his  disciples,  Jochanan 
ben  Zakkai,  one  of  the  wisest  of  our  rabbis,  fled  to 
escape  the  misery  incident  to  the  downfall  of  Jeru- 
salem. He  knew  that  the  Temple  would  never 
again  rise  from  its  ashes.  He  knew  as  well  that  the 
essence  of  Judaism  has  no  organic  connection  with 
the  Temple  or  the  Holy  City.  He  foresaw  that  its 
mission  is  to  spread  abroad  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  and  of  this  future  he  spoke  to  the  disciples 
gathered  about  him  in  the  academy  at  Jabneh.  We 
can  imagine  him  asking  them  to  define  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  Judaism,  and  receiving  a  multi- 
plicity of  answers,  varying  with  the  character  and 
temper  of  the  young  missionaries.  To  one,  possi- 
bly, Judaism  seemed  to  rest  upon  faith  in  God,  to 
another  upon  the  Sabbath,  to  a  third  upon  the 
Torah,  to  a  fourth  upon  the  Decalogue.  Such 
views  could  not  have  satisfied  the  spiritual  cravings 
of  the  aged  teacher.  When  Jochanan  ben  Zakkai 
rises  to  give  utterance  to  his  opinion,  we  feel  as 
though  the  narrow  walls  of  the  academy  at  Jabneh 
were  miraculously  widening  out  to  enclose  the 
world,  while  the  figure  of  the  venerable  rabbi  grows 
to  the  noble  proportions  of  a  divine  seer,  whose 
piercing  eye  rends  the  veil  of  futurity,  and  reads  the 
remote  verdict  of  history:  "  My  disciples,  my  friends, 
the  fundamental  principle  of  Judaism  is  love!" 


THE  JEWISH   STAGE 

Perhaps  no  people  has  held  so  peculiar  a  position 
with  regard  to  the  drama  as  the  Jews.  Little  more 
than  two  centuries  have  passed  since  a  Jewish  poet 
ventured  to  write  a  drama,  and  now,  if  division  by 
race  be  admissible  in  literary  matters,  Jews  indisput- 
ably rank  among  the  first  of  those  interested  in  the 
drama,  both  in  its  composition  and  presentation. 

Originally,  the  Hebrew  mind  felt  no  attraction 
towards  the  drama.  Hebrew  poetry  attained  to 
neither  dramatic  nor  epic  creations,  because  the  all- 
pervading  monotheistic  principle  of  the  nation  par- 
alyzed the  free  and  easy  marshalling  of  gods  and 
heroes  of  the  Greek  drama.  Nevertheless,  traces  of 
dramatic  poetry  appear  in  the  oldest  literature. 
The  "  Song  of  Songs  "  by  many  is  regarded  as  a 
dramatic  idyl  in  seven  scenes,  with  Shulammith  as 
the  heroine,  and  the  king,  the  ostensible  author,  as 
the  hero.  But  this  and  similar  efforts  are  only  faint 
approaches  to  dramatic  composition,  inducing  no 
imitations. 

Greek  and  Roman  theatrical  representations,  the 
first  they  knew,  must  have  awakened  lively  interest 
in  the  Jews.  It  was  only  after  Alexander  the  Great's 
triumphal  march  through  the  East,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  Roman  supremacy  over  Judaea,  that  a 

229 


230  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

foothold  was  gained  in  Palestine  by  the  institutions 
called  theatre  by  the  ancients ;  that  is,  stadia;  circuses 
for  wrestling,  fencing,  and  combats  between  men 
and  animals;  and  the  stage  for  tragedies  and  other 
plays.  To  the  horror  of  pious  zealots,  the  Jewish 
Hellenists,  in  other  words,  Jews  imbued  with  the 
secular  culture  of  the  day,  built  a  gymnasium  for  the 
wrestling  and  fencing  contests  of  the  Jewish  youth 
of  Jerusalem,  soon  to  be  further  defiled  by  the  circus 
and  the  stadium.  According  to  Flavius  Josephus, 
Herod  erected  a  theatre  at  Jerusalem  twenty-eight 
years  before  the  present  era,  and  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  city,  an  amphitheatre  where  Greek  players  acted, 
and  sang  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  lyre  or  flute. 

The  first,  and  at  his  time  probably  the  only,  Jew- 
ish dramatist  was  the  Greek  poet  Ezekielos  (Eze- 
kiel),  who  flourished  in  about  150  before  the  com- 
mon era.  In  his  play,  "  The  Exodus  from  Egypt/' 
modelled  after  Euripides,  Moses,  as  we  know  him 
in  the  Bible,  is  the  hero.  Otherwise  the  play  is 
thoroughly  Hellenic,  showing  the  Greek  tendency 
to  become  didactic  and  reflective  and  use  the  heroes 
of  sacred  legend  as  human  types.  Besides,  two 
fragments  of  Jewish-Hellenic  dramas,  in  trimeter 
verse,  have  come  down  to  us,  the  one  treating  of 
the  unity  of  God,  the  other  of  the  serpent  in  Para- 
dise. 

To  the  mass  of  the  Jewish  people,  particularly  to 
the  expounders  and  scholars  of  the  Law,  theatrical 
performances  seemed  a  desecration,  a  sin.  A  vio- 
lent struggle  ensued  between  the  Beth  ha-Midrash 


THE  JEWISH    STAGE  23! 

and  the  stage,  between  the  teachers  of  the  Law  and 
lovers  of  art,  between  Rabbinism  and  Hellenism. 
Mindful  of  Bible  laws  inculcating  humanity  to 
beasts  and  men,  the  rabbis  could  not  fail  to  depre- 
cate gladiatorial  contests,  and  in  their  simple-minded- 
ness they  must  have  revolted  from  the  themes  of  the 
Greek  playwright,  dishonesty,  violence  triumphant, 
and  conjugal  infidelity  being  then  as  now  fav- 
orite subjects  of  dramatic  representations.  The  im- 
morality of  the  stage  was,  if  possible,  more  con- 
spicuous in  those  days  than  in  ours. 

This  was  the  point  of  view  assumed  by  the  rabbis 
in  their  exhortations  to  the  people,  and  a  conspir- 
acy against  King  Herod  was  the  result.  The  plot- 
ters one  evening  appeared  at  the  theatre,  but  their 
designs  were  frustrated  by  the  absence  of  the  king 
and  his  suite.  The  plot  betrayed  itself,  and  one  of 
the  members  of  the  conspiracy  was  seized  and  torn 
into  pieces  by  the  mob.  The  most  uncompromis- 
ing rabbis  pronounced  a  curse  over  frequenters  of 
the  theatre,  and  raised  abstinence  from  its  pleasures 
to  the  dignity  of  a  meritorious  action,  inasmuch  as 
it  was  the  scene  of  idolatrous  practices,  and  its 
habitues  violated  the  admonition  contained  in  the 
first  verse  of  the  psalms.  "  Cursed  be  they  who 
visit  the  theatre  and  the  circus,  and  despise  our 
laws,"  one  of  them  exclaims.1  Another  interprets 
the  words  of  the  prophet:  "  I  sat  not  in  the  assembly 
of  the  mirthful,  and  was  rejoiced,"  by  the  prayer: 
"  Lord  of  the  universe,  never  have  I  visited  a  theatre 

1  Aboda  Sara  i  St. 


232  THE  JEWISH   STAGE 

or  a  circus  to  enjoy  myself  in  the  company  of 
scorners.7' 

Despite  rampant  antagonism,  the  stage  worked 
its  way  into  the  affection  and  consideration  of  the 
Jewish  public,  and  we  hear  of  Jewish  youths  devot- 
ing themselves  to  the  drama  and  becoming  actors. 
Only  one  has  come  down  to  us  by  name:  the  cele- 
brated Alityros  in  Rome,  the  favorite  of  Emperor 
Nero  and  his  wife  Poppaea.  Josephus  speaks  of 
him  as  "  a  player,  and  a  Jew,  well  favored  by  Nero/' 
When  the  Jewish  historian  landed  at  Puteoli,  a  cap- 
tive, Alityros  presented  him  to  the  empress,  who 
secured  his  liberation.  Beyond  a  doubt,  the  Jewish 
beaux  esprils  of  Rome  warmly  supported  the  the- 
atre; indeed,  Roman  satirists  levelled  their  shafts 
against  the  zeal  displayed  in  the  service  of  art  by 
Jewish  patrons. 

A  reaction  followed.  Theatrical  representations 
were  pursued  by  Talmudic  Judaism  with  the  same 
bitter  animosity  as  by  Christianity.  Not  a  matter 
of  surprise,  if  account  is  taken  of  the  licentiousness 
of  the  stage,  so  depraved  as  to  evoke  sharp  reproof 
even  from  a  Cicero,  and  the  hostility  of  play- 
wrights to  Tews  and  Christians,  whom  they  held  up 
as  a  butt  for  the  ridicule  of  the  Roman  populace. 
Talmudic  literature  has  preserved  several  examples 
of  the  buffooneries  launched  against  Judaism. 
Rabbi  Abbayu  tells  the  following:1  A  camel  cov- 
ered with  a  mourning  blanket  is  brought  upon  the 
stage,  and  gives  rise  to  a  conversation.  "Why  is 
»Midrash  on  Lamentations,  ch.  3,  v. 


THE  JEWISH    STAGE  233 

the  camel  trapped  in  mourning?"  "  Because  the 
Jews,  who  are  observing  the  sabbatical  year,  abstain 
from  vegetables,  and  refuse  to  eat  even  herbs. 
They  eat  only  thistles,  and  the  camel  is  mourning 
because  he  is  deprived  of  his  favorite  food." 

Another  time  a  buffoon  appears  on  the  stage  with 
head  shaved  close.  "Why  is  the  clown  mourn- 
ing?" "Because  oil  is  so  dear."  "Why  is  oil 
dear?"  "  On  account  of  the  Jews.  On  the  Sab- 
bath day  they  consume  everything  they  earn  during 
the  week.  Not  a  stick  of  wood  is  left  to  make  fire 
whereby  to  cook  their  meals.  They  are  forced  to 
burn  their  beds  for  fuel,  and  sleep  on  the  floor  at 
night.  To  get  rid  of  the  dirt,  they  use  an  immense 
quantity  of  oil.  Therefore,  oil  is  dear,  and  the 
clown  cannot  grease  his  hair  with  pomade."  Cer- 
tainly no  one  will  deny  that  the  patrons  of  the 
Roman  theatre  were  less  critical  than  a  modern 
audience. 

Teachers  of  the  Law  had  but  one  answer  to  make 
to  such  attacks — a  rigorous  injunction  against  the- 
atre-going. On  this  subject  rabbis  and  Church 
Fathers  were  of  one  mind.  The  rabbi's  declara- 
tion, that  he  who  enters  a  circus  commits  murder,  is 
offspring  of  the  same  holy  zeal  that  dictates  Ter- 
tullian's  solemn  indignation :  "  In  no  respect,  neither 
by  speaking,  nor  by  seeing,  nor  by  hearing,  have 
we  part  in  the  mad  antics  of  the  circus,  the  ob- 
scenity of  the  theatre,  or  the  abominations  of  the 
arena."  Such  expressions  prepare  one  for  the  pas- 
sion of  another  remonstrant  who,  on  a  Sabbath,  ex- 


234  THE  JEWISH    STAGE 

plained  to  his  audience  that  earthquakes  are  the 
signs  of  God's  fierce  wrath  when  He  looks  down 
upon  earth,  and  sees  theatres  and  circuses  flourish, 
while  His  sanctuary  lies  in  ruins.1 

Anathemas  against  the  stage  were  vain.  One 
teacher  of  the  Law,  in  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, went  so  far  as  to  permit  attendance  at  the 
circus  and  the  stadium  for  the  very  curious  reason 
that  the  spectator  may  haply  render  assistance  to 
the  charioteers  in  the  event  of  an  accident  on  the 
race  track,  or  may  testify  to  their  death  at  court, 
and  thus  enable  their  widows  to  marry  again. 
Another  pious  Yabbi  expresses  the  hope  that  the- 
atres and  circuses  at  Rome  at  some  future  time  may 
"  be  converted  into  academies  of  virtue  and  mor- 
ality." 

Such  liberal  views  were  naturally  of  extremely 
rare  occurrence.  Many  centuries  passed  before  Jews 
in  general  were  able  to  overcome  antipathy  to  the 
stage  and  all  connected  with  it.  Pagan  Rome  with 
its  artistic  creations  was  to  sink,  and  the  new  Chris- 
tian drama,  springing  from  the  ruins  of  the  old  the- 
atre, but  making  the  religious  its  central  idea,  was 
to  develop  and  invite  imitation  before  the  first  germ 
of  interest  in  dramatic  subjects  ventured  to  show 
itself. in  Jewish  circles.  The  first  Jewish  contribu- 
tion to  the  drama  dates  from  the  ninth  century.  The 
story  of  Haman,  arch-enemy  of  the  Jews,  was  dram- 
atized in  celebration  of  Purim,  the  Jewish  carnival. 
The  central  figure  was  Hainan's  effigy  which  was 

1  Jerusalem  Talmud,  Bcracholh,  9. 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  235 

burnt,  amid  song,  music,  and  general  merrymaking, 
on  a  small  pyre,  over  which  the  participants  jumped 
a  number  of  times  in  gleeful  rejoicing  over  the 
downfall  of  their  worst  enemy — extravagance  par- 
donable in  a  people  which,  on  every  other  day  of 
the  year,  tottered  under  a  load  of  distress  and  op- 
pression. 

This  dramatic  effort  was  only  a  sporadic  phe- 
nomenon. Real,  uninterrupted  participation  in  dra- 
matic art  by  Jews  cannot  be  recorded  until  fully  six 
hundred  years  later.  Meantime  the  Spanish  drama, 
the  first  to  adapt  Bible  subjects  to  the  uses  of  the 
stage,  had  reached  its  highest  development.  By 
reason  of  its  choice  of  subjects  it  proved  so  attrac- 
tive to  Jews  that  scarcely  fifty  years  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  first  Spanish-Jewish  playwright,  a 
Spanish  satirist  deplores,  in  cutting  verse,  the  Ju- 
daizing  of  dramatic  poetry.  In  fact,  the  first  origi- 
nal drama  in  Spanish  literature,  the  celebrated  Ce~ 
lestina,\s  attributed  to  a  Jew,  the  Marrano  Rodrigo 
da  Cota.  "  Esther,"  the  first  distinctly  Jewish  play 
in  Spanish,  was  written  in  1567  by  Solomon  Usque 
in  Ferrara  in  collaboration  with  Lazaro  Graziano. 
The  subject  treated  centuries  before  in  a  rough- 
shod manner  naturally  suggested  itself  to  a  genuine 
dramatist,  who  chose  it  in  order  to  invest  it  with  the 
dignity  conferred  by  poetic  art.  This  first  essay  in 
the  domain  of  the  Jewish  drama  was  followed  by  a 
succession  of  dramatic  creations  by  Jews,  who,  ex- 
iled from  Spain,  cherished  the  memory  of  their  be- 
loved country,  and,  carrying  to  their  new  homes  in 


236  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

Italy  and  Holland,  love  for  its  language  and  litera- 
ture, wrote  all  their  works,  dramas  included,  in 
Spanish  after  Spanish  models.  So  fruitful  was  their 
activity  that  shortly  after  the  exile  we  hear  of  a 
"  Jewish  Calderon,"  the  author  of  more  than  twenty- 
two  plays,  some  long  held  to  be  the  work  of 
Calderon  himself,  and  therefore  received  with  ac- 
clamation in  Madrid.  The  real  author,  whose  place 
in  Spanish  literature  is  assured,  was  Antonio  Enri- 
quez  di  Gomez,  a  Marrano,  burnt  in  effigy  at 
Seville  after  his  escape  from  the  clutches  of  the 
Inquisition.  His  dramas  in  part  deal  with  biblical 
subjects.  Samson  is  obviously  the  mouthpiece  of 
his  own  sentiments: 

"  O  God,  my  God,  the  time  draws  quickly  nigh  ! 
Now  let  a  ray  of  thy  great  strength  descend  ! 
Make  firm  my  hand  to  execute  the  deed 
That  alien  rule  upon  our  soil  shall  end  !  " 

Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Portuguese  language  usurped  the  place  of  Spanish 
among  Jews,  and  straightway  we  hear  of  a  Jewish 
dramatist,  Antonio  Jose  de  Silva  (1/05-1739),  one 
of  the  most  illustrious  of  Portuguese  poets,  whose 
dramas  still  hold  their  own  on  the  repertory  of  the 
Portuguese  stage.  He  was  burnt  at  the  stake,  a 
martyr  to  his  faith,  which  he  solemnly  confessed  in 
the  hour  of  his  execution:  "I  am  a  follower  of  a 
faith  God-given  according  to  your  own  teachings. 
God  once  loved  this  religion.  I  believe  He  still 
loves  it,  but  because  you  maintain  that  He  no  longer 


THE  JEWISH    STAGE  237 

turns  upon  it  the  light  of  His  countenance,  you 
condemn  to  death  those  convinced  that  God  has  not 
withdrawn  His  grace  from  what  He  once  favored." 
It  is  by  no  means  an  improbable  combination  of 
circumstances  that  on  the  evening  of  the  day 
whereon  Antonio  Jose  de  Silva  expired  at  the 
stake,  an  operetta  written  by  the  victim  himself  was 
played  at  the  great  theatre  of  Lisbon  in  celebration 
of  the  auto-da-fe. 

Jewish  literature  as  such  derived  little  increase 
from  this  poetic  activity  among  Jews.  In  the  pe- 
riod under  discussion  a  single  Hebrew  drama  was 
produced  which  can  lay  claim  to  somewhat  more 
praise  than  is  the  due  of  mediocrity.  Asireh  ha- 
Tikwah,  "  The  Prisoners  of  Hope,"  printed  in  1673, 
deserves  notice  because  it  was  the  first  drama  pub- 
lished in  Hebrew,  and  its  author,  Joseph  Pensa  de 
la  Vega,  was  the  last  of  Spanish,  as  Antonio  de 
Silva  was  the  last  of  Portuguese,  Jewish  poets.  The 
three  act  play  is  an  allegory,  treating  of  the  victory 
of  freewill,  represented  by  a  king,  over  evil  inclina- 
tions, personified  by  the  handsome  lad  Cupid. 
Though  imbued  with  the  solemnity  of  his  responsi- 
bilities as  a  ruler,  the  king  is  lured  from  the  path  of 
right  by  various  persons  and  circumstances,  chief 
among  them  Cupid,  his  coquettish  queen,  and  his 
sinful  propensities.  The  opposing  good  forces  are 
represented  by  the  figures  of  harmony,  Provi- 
dence, and  truth,  and  they  eventually  lead  the  erring 
wanderer  back  to  the  road  of  salvation.  The  dra- 
matis personce  of  this  first  Hebrew  drama  are  ab- 


238  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

stractions,  devoid  of  dramatic  life,  mere  allegorical 
personifications,  but  the  underlying  idea  is  poetic, 
and  the  Hebrew  style  pure,  euphonious,  and 
rhythmical.  Yet  it  is  impossible  to  echo  the  enthu- 
siasm which  greeted  the  work  of  the  seventeen  year 
old  author  in  the  Jewish  academies  of  Holland. 
Twenty-one  poets  sang  its  praises  in  Latin,  Hebrew, 
and  Spanish  verse.  The  following  couplet  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  their  eulogies: 

"At  length  Israel's  muse  assumes  the  tragic  cothurn, 
And  happily  wends  her  way  through  the  metre's  mazes." 

Pensa,  though  the  first  to  publish,  was  not  the 
first  Hebrew  dramatist  to  write.  The  distinction  of 
priority  belongs  to  Moses  Zacuto,  who  wrote  his 
Hebrew  play,  Yesod  Olam  ("  The  Foundation  of 
the  World  ")  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier.  His 
subject  is  the  persecution  inflicted  by  idolaters  upon 
Abraham  on  account  of  his  faith,  and  the  ground- 
work is  the  Haggadistic  narrative  about  Abraham's 
bold  opposition  to  idolatrous  practices,  and  his  cour- 
age even  unto  death  in  the  service  of  the  true  God. 
According  to  Talmudic  interpretation  a  righteous 
character  of  this  description  is  one  of  the  corner- 
stones of  the  universe.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
Zacuto's  work  is  a  drama  with  a  purpose.  The  poet 
wished  to  fortify  his  exiled,  harassed  people  with  the 
inspiration  and  hope  that  flow  from  the  contempla- 

1  Cmp.  Berliner,  Yesod  Olam,  das  aheste  bekannte  dramatische 
Gedicht  in  hebrdtscher  Sprache. 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  239 

tion  of  a  strong,  bold  personality.  But  the  admis- 
sion does  not  detract  from  the  genuine  merits  of  the 
poem.  On  the  other  hand,  this  first  dramatic  effort 
naturally  is  crude,  lacking  in  the  poetic  forms  sup- 
plied by  highly  developed  art.  Dialogues,  prayers, 
and  choruses  follow  each  other  without  regularity, 
and  in  varying  metres,  not  destitute,  however,  of 
poetic  sentiment  and  lyric  beauties.  Often  the 
rhythm  rises  to  a  high  degree  of  excellence,  even 
elevation.  Like  Pensa,  Zacuto  was  the  disciple  of 
great  masters,  and  a  comparison  of  either  with  Lope 
de  Vega  and  Calderon  will  reveal  the  same  southern 
warmth,  stilted  pathos,  exuberance  of  fancy,  wealth 
of  imagery,  excessive  playing  upon  words,  peculiar 
turns  and  phrases,  erratic  style,  and  other  qualities 
characteristic  of  Spanish  dramatic  poetry  in  that 
period. 

Another  century  elapsed  before  the  muse  of  the 
Hebrew  drama  escaped  from  leading  strings.  Moses 
Chayyim  Luzzatto  (1707-1747)  of  Padua  was  a  poet 
of  true  dramatic  gifts,  and  had  he  lived  at  another 
time  he  might  have  attained  to  absolute  greatness  of 
performance.  Unluckily,  the  sentimental,  impres- 
sionable youth  became  hopelessly  enmeshed  in  the 
snares  of  mysticism.  In  his  seventeenth  year  he 
composed  a  biblical  drama,  "  Samson  and  the  Philis- 
tines," the  preserved  fragments  of  which  are  fault- 
less in  metre.  His  next  effort  was  an  allegorical 
drama,  Migdal  Oz  ("  Tower  of  Victory  "),  the  style 
and  moral  of  which  show  unmistakable  signs  of 
Italian  inspiration,  derived  particularly  from  Gua- 


24O  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

rini  and  his  Pastor  Fido,  models  not  wholly  com- 
mendable at  a  time  when  M  after  s  Merope  was  ex- 
erting wholesome  influence  upon  the  Italian  drama 
in  the  direction  of  simplicity  and  dignity.  Nothing, 
however,  could  wean  Luzzatto  from  adherence  to 
Spanish-Italian  romanticism.  His  happiest  creation 
is  the  dramatic  parable,  Layesharim  Tehillah 
("  Praise  unto  the  Righteous!  ").  The  poetry  of  the 
Bible  here  celebrates  its  resurrection.  The  rhythm 
and  exuberance  of  the  Psalms  are  reproduced  in  the 
tone  and  color  of  its  language.  "  All  the  fragrant 
flowers  of  biblical  poetry  are  massed  in  a  single  bed. 
Yet  the  language  is  more  than  a  mosaic  of  biblical 
phrases.  It  is  an  enamel  of  the  most  superb  and 
the  rarest  of  elegant  expressions  in  the  Bible.  The 
peculiarities  of  the  historical  writings  are  carefully 
avoided,  while  all  modifications  of  style  peculiar  to 
poetry  are  gathered  together  to  constitute  what  may 
fairly  be  called  a  vocabulary  of  poetic  diction."1 

The  allegory  Layesharim  Tehillah  is  full  of 
charming  traits,  but  lacks  warmth,  naturalness,  and 
human  interest,  the  indispensable  elements  of  dra- 
matic action.  The  first  act  treats  of  the  iniquity  of 
men  who  prize  deceit  beyond  virtue,  and  closes  with 
the  retirement  of  the  pious  sage  to  solitude.  The 
second  act  describes  the  hopes  of  the  righteous  man 
and  his  fate,  and  the  third  sounds  the  praise  of  truth 
and  justice.  The  thread  of  the  story  is  slight,  and 
the  characters  are  pale  phantoms,  instead  of  warm- 
blooded men.  Yet  the  work  must  be  pronounced  a 

1  Delitzsch,  Zur  Geschichte  dtr  judisc hen  Poesie,  p.  88, 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  24! 

gem  of  neo-Hebraic  poetry,  an  earnest  of  the  great 
creations  its  author  might  have  produced,  if  in  early 
youth  he  had  not  been  caught  in  the  swirling  waters, 
and  dragged  down  into  the  abysmal  depths  of  Kab- 
balistic  mysticism.  Despite  his  vagaries  his  poems 
were  full  of  suggestiveness  and  stimulation  to  many 
of  his  race,  who  were  inspired  to  work  along  the 
lines  laid  down  by  him.  He  may  be  considered  to 
have  inaugurated  another  epoch  of  classical  Hebrew 
literature,  interpenetrated  *  with  the  modern  spirit, 
which  the  Jewish  dramas  of  his  day  are  vigorously 
successful  in  clothing  in  a  Hebrew  garb. 

In  the  popular  literature  in  Jewish-German  grow- 
ing up  almost  unnoticed  beside  classical  Hebrew 
literature,  we  find  popular  plays,  comedies,  chiefly 
farces  for  the  Purim  carnival.  The  first  of  them, 
"The  Sale  of  Joseph "  (Mekirath  Yoseph,  1710), 
treats  the  biblical  narrative  in  the  form  and  spirit  of 
the  German  farcical  clown  dialogues,  Pickelhering 
(Merry-Andrew),  borrowed  from  the  latter,  being 
Potiphar's  servant  and  counsellor.  No  dramatic  or 
poetic  value  of  any  kind  attaches  to  the  play.  It  is 
as  trivial  as  any  of  its  models,  the  German  clown 
comedies,  and  possesses  interest  only  as  an  index  to 
the  taste  of  the  public,  which  surely  received  it  with 
delight.  Strangely  enough  the  principal  scene  be- 
tween Joseph  and  Selicha,  Potiphar's  wife,  is  highly 
discreet.  In  a  monologue,  she  gives  passionate  ut- 
terance to  her  love.  Then  Joseph  appears,  and  she 
addresses  him  thus: 


242  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

"  Be  welcome,  Joseph,  dearest  one, 
My  slave  who  all  my  heart  has  won  ! 
I  beg  of  thee  grant  my  request ! 
So  oft  have  I  to  thee  confessed, 
My  love  for  thee  is  passing  great. 
In  vain  for  answering  love  I  wait. 
Have  not  so  tyrannous  a  mind, 
Be  not  so  churlish,  so  unkind — 
I  bear  thee  such  affection,  see, 
Why  wilt  thou  not  give  love  to  me  ?  " 

Joseph  answers: 

"  I  owe  my  lady  what  she  asks, 
Yet  this  is  not  among  my  tasks. 
I  pray,  my  mistress,  change  thy  mind  ; 
Thou  canst  so  many  like  me  find. 
How  could  I  dare  transgress  my  state, 
And  my  great  trust  so  violate  ? 
My  lord  hath  charged  me  with  his  house, 
Excepting  only  his  dear  spouse  ; 
Yet  she,  it  seems,  needs  watching  too. 
Now,  mistress,  fare  thee  well,  adieu  !  " 

Selicha  then  says: 

"  O  heaven  now  what  shall  I  do  ? 
He'll  list  not  to  my  vows  so  true. 
Come,  Pickelhering,  tell  me  quick, 
What  I  shall  do  his  love  to  prick  ? 
I'll  die  if  I  no  means  can  find 
To  bend  his  humor  to  my  mind. 
I'll  give  thee  gold,  thou  mayst  depend, 
If  thou'lt  but  help  me  to  my  end." 

Pickelhering  appears,  and  says: 

"  My  lady,  here  I  am,  thy  slave, 
My  wisest  counsel  thou  shalt  have. 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  243 

Thou  must  lay  violent  hand  on  him, 

And  say  :     '  Unless  thou'lt  grant  my  whim, 

I'll  drive  thee  hence  from  out  my  court, 

And  with  thy  woes  I'll  have  my  sport, 

Nor  will  I  stay  thy  punishment, 

Till  drop  by  drop  thy  blood  is  spent.' 

Perhaps  he  wall  amend  his  way, 

If  thou  such  cruel  words  wilt  say." 

Selicha  follows  his  advice,  but  being  thwarted, 
again  appeals  to  Pickelhering,  who  says: 

"My  lady  fair,  pray  hark  to  me, 
My  counsel  now  shall  fruitful  be. 
A  garbled  story  shalt  thou  tell 
The  king,  and  say  :     «  Hear  what  befell : 
Thy  servant  Joseph  did  presume 
To  enter  in  my  private  room, 
When  no  one  was  about  the  house 
Who  could  protect  thy  helpless  spouse. 
See  here  his  mantle  left  behind. 
Seize  him,  my  lord,  the  miscreant  find.'  ' 

Potiphar  appears,  Selicha  tells  her  tale,  and  Pick- 
elhering is  sent  in  quest  of  Joseph,  who  steps  upon 
the  scene  to  be  greeted  by  his  master's  far  from 
gentle  reproaches: 

"  Thou  gallowsbird,  thou  good-for-naught  ! 
Thou  whom  so  true  and  good  I  thought  ! 
'  Twere  just  to  take  thy  life  from  thee. 
But  no  !  still  harsher  this  decree  : 
In  dungeon  chained  shalt  thou  repine, 
Where  neither  sun  nor  moon  can  shine. 
Forever  there  bewail  thy  lot  unheard  ; 
Now  leave  my  sight,  begone,  thou  gallowsbird.'  " 


244  THE   JEWISH    STAGE 

This  ends  the  scene.  Of  course,  at  the  last,  Jo- 
seph escapes  his  doom,  and,  to  the  great  joy  of  the 
sympathetic  public,  is  raised  to  high  dignities  and 
honors. 

This  farce  was  presented  at  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  by  Jewish  students  of  the  city,  aided  by  some 
from  Hamburg  and  Prague,  with  extravagant  dis- 
play of  scenery.  Tradition  ascribes  the  authorship 
to  a  certain  Beermann. 

"  Ahasverus "  is  of  similar  coarse  character,  so 
coarse,  indeed,  that  the  directors  of  the  Frankfort 
Jewish  community,  exercising  their  rights  as  literary 
censors,  forbade  its  performance,  and  had  the  printed 
copies  burnt.  A  somewhat  more  refined  comedy  is 
Acta  Esther  et  Achashverosh,  published  at  Prague 
in  1720,  and  enacted  there  by  the  pupils  of  the 
celebrated  rabbi  David  Oppenheim,  "  on  a  regular 
stage  with  drums  and  other  instruments."  "  The 
Deeds  of  King  David  and  Goliath/'  and  a  travesty, 
"  Haman's  Will  and  Death  "  also  belong  to  the  cate- 
gory of  Purim  farces. 

By  an  abrupt  transition  we  pass  from  their  con- 
sideration to  the  Hebrew  classical  drama  modelled 
after  the  pattern  of  Moses  Chayyim  Luzzatto's. 
Greatest  attention  was  bestowed  upon  historical 
dramas,  notably  those  on  the  trials  and  fortunes  of 
Marranos,  the  favorite  subjects  treated  by  David 
Franco  Mendez,  Samuel  Romanelli,  and  others. 
Although  their  language  is  an  almost  pure  classical 
Hebrew,  the  plot  is  conceived  wholly  in  the  spirit  of 
modern  times.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  245 

tury,  a  large  number  of  writers  turned  to  Bible 
heroes  and  heroines  for  dramatic  uses,  and  since 
then  Jewish  interest  in  the  drama  has  never  flagged. 
The  luxuriant  fruitfulness  of  these  late  Jewish  play- 
wrights, standing  in  the  sunlight  of  modern  days, 
fully  compensates  for  the  sterility  of  the  Jewish  dra- 
matic muse  during  the  centuries  of  darkness. 

The  first  Jewish  dramatist  to  use  German  was 
Benedict  David  Arnstein,  of  Vienna,  author  of  a 
large  number  of  plays,  comedies  and  melodramas, 
some  of  which  have  been  put  upon  the  boards  of 
the  Vienna  imperial  theatre  {Burgtheater).  He  was 
succeeded  by  L.  M.  Buschenthal,  whose  drama, 
"  King  Solomon's  Seal,"  was  performed  at  the  royal 
theatre  of  Berlin.  Since  his  time  poets  of  Jewish 
race  have  enriched  dramatic  literature  in  all  its  de- 
partments. Their  works  belong  to  general  litera- 
ture, and  need  not  be  individualized  in  this  essay. 

In  the  province  of  dramatic  music,  too,  Jews  have 
made  a  prominent  position  for  themselves.  It 
suffices  to  mention  Meyerbeer  and  Offenbach,  rep- 
resentatives of  two  widely  divergent  departments  of 
the  art.  Again,  to  assert  the  prominence  of  Jews 
as  actors  is  uttering  a  truism.  Adolf  Jellinek,  one 
of  the  closest  students  of  the  racial  characteristics  of 
Jews,  thinks  that  they  are  singularly  well  equipped 
for  the  theatrical  profession  by  reasoh  of  their 
marked  subjectivity,  which  always  induces  objective, 
disinterested  devotion  to  a  purpose,  and  their  cos- 
mopolitanism, which  enables  them  to  transport 
themselves  with  ease  into  a  new  world  of  thought.1 

1  Jellinek,  Der  jiidische  Stanim,  p.  64. 


246  THE  JEWISH    STAGE 

"  It  is  natural  that  a  race  whose  religious,  literary, 
and  linguistic  development  in  hundreds  of  instances 
proves  unique  talent  to  adapt  itself  with  marvellous 
facility  to  the  intellectual  life  of  various  countries 
and  nations,  should  bring  forth  individuals  gifted 
with  power  to  project  themselves  into  a  character 
created  by  art,  and  impersonate  it  with  admirable 
accuracy  in  the  smallest  detail.  What  the  race  as  a 
whole  has  for  centuries  been  doing  spontaneously 
and  by  virtue  of  innate  characteristics,  can  surely  be 
done  with  greater  perfection  by  some  of  its  members 
under  the  consciously  accepted  guidance  of  the  laws 
of  art."  Many  Jewish  race  peculiarities — quick  per- 
ception, vivacity,  declamatory  pathos,  perfervid 
imagination — are  prime  qualifications  for  the  actor's 
career,  and  such  names  as  Bogumil  Davison,  Adolf 
Sonnenthal,  Rachel  Felix,  and  Sarah  Bernhardt 
abundantly  illustrate  the  general  proposition. 

Strenuous  efforts  to  ascertain  the  name  of  the 
first  Jewish  actor  in  Germany  have  been  unavailing. 
Possibly  it  was  the  unnamed  artist  for  whom,  at  his 
brother's  instance,  Lessing  interceded  at  the  Mann- 
heim national  theatre. 

Legion  is  the  name  of  the  Jewish  artists  of  this 
century  who  have  attained  to  prominence  in  every 
department  of  the  dramatic  art,  in  every  country, 
even  the  remotest,  on  the  globe.  Travellers  in  Rus- 
sia tell  of  the  crowds  that  evening  after  evening 
flock  to  the  Jewish-German  theatres  at  Odessa, 
Kiev,  and  Warsaw.  The  plays  performed  are  adap- 
tations of  the  best  dramatic  works  of  all  modern 


THE   JEWISH    STAGE  247 

nations.  We  outside  of  Russia  have  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  character  of  these  performances 
by  the  melodrama  "  Shulammith,"  enacted  at  va- 
rious theatres  by  a  Jewish-German  opera  bouffe 
company  from  Warsaw,  and  the  writer  once — can 
he  ever  forget  it? — saw  "  Hamlet"  played  by  jargon 
actors.  When  Hamlet  offers  advice  to  Ophelia  in 
the  words:  "  Get  thee  to  a  nunnery!  "  she  promptly 
retorts :  Mit  Eizes  bin  ich  versehen,  mein  Prinz ! 
(With  good  advice  I  am  well  supplied,  my  lord!). 

The  actor  recalled  by  the  recent  centennial  cele- 
bration of  the  first  performance  of  "The  Magic 
Flute "  must  have  been  among  the  first  Jews  to 
adopt  the  stage  as  a  profession.  The  first  presenta- 
tion, at  once  establishing  the  success  of  the  opera, 
took  place  at  Prague.  According  to  the  Prager 
Neue  Zeitung  an  incident  connected  with  that 
original  performance  was  of  greater  interest  than 
the  opera  itself:  "On  the  tenth  of  last  month,  the 
new  piece,  l  The  Magic  Flute/  was  produced.  I 
hastened  to  the  theatre,  and  found  that  the  part  of 
Sarastro  was  taken  by  a  well-formed  young  man 
with  a  caressing  voice  who,  as  I  was  told  to  my  great 
surprise,  was  a  Jew — yes,  a  Jew.  He  was  visibly 
embarrassed  when  he  first  appeared,  proving  that  he 
was  a  human  being  subject  to  the  ordinary  laws  of 
nature  and  to  the  average  mortal's  weaknesses. 
Noticing  his  stage-fright,  the  audience  tried  to  en- 
courage him  by  applause.  It  succeeded,  for  he  sang 
and  spoke  his  lines  with  grace  and  dignity.  At  the 
end  he  was  called  out  and  applauded  vigorously. 


248  THE  JEWISH   STAGE 

In  short,  I  found  the  Prague  public  very  different 
from  its  reputation  with  us.  It  knows  how  to  ap- 
preciate merit  even  when  possessed  by  an  Israelite, 
and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  criticises  harshly 
only  when  there  is  just  reason  for  complaint.  Har- 
tung,  the  Jewish  actor,  will  soon  appear  in  other 
roles,  and  doubtless  will  justify  the  applause  of  the 
public." 

To  return,  in  conclusion,  to  the  classical  drama 
in  Hebrew.  Though  patterned  after  the  best  classi- 
cal models,  and  enriched  by  the  noble  creations  of 
S.  L.  Romanelli,  M.  E.  Letteris,  the  translator  of 
Faust,  A.  Gottloeber,  and  others,  Hebrew  dramas 
belong  to  the  large  class  of  plays  for  the  closet,  un- 
suited  for  the  stage.  This  dramatic  literature  con- 
tains not  only  original  creations;  the  masterpieces 
of  all  literatures — the  works  of  Shakespere,  Racine, 
Moliere,  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Lessing — have  been 
put  into  the  language  of  the  prophets  and  the  psalm- 
ists, and,  infected  by  the  vigor  of  their  thought,  the 
ancient  tongue  has  been  re-animated  with  the  vitality 
of  undying  youth. 


THE  JEWS    QUEST  IN  AFRICA 

Citizens  of  ancient  Greece  conversing  during  the 
entr'actes  of  a  first  performance  at  the  national  the- 
atre of  Olympia  were  almost  sure  to  ask  each  other, 
after  the  new  play  had  been  discussed:  "  What  news 
from  Africa?"  Through  Aristotle  the  proverb  has 
come  down  to  us:  "Africa  always  brings  us  some- 
thing new."  -Hence  the  question:  Quid  novi  ex 
Africa?* 

If  ever  two  old  rabbis  in  the  Beth  ha-Midrash  at 
Cyrene  stole  a  chat  in  the  intervals  of  their  lectures, 
the  same  question  probably  passed  between  them. 
For,  Africa  has  always  claimed  the  interest  of  the 
cultured.  Jewish-German  legend  books  place  the 
scenes  of  their  most  mysterious  myths  in  the  "  Dark 
Continent,"  and  I  remember  distinctly  how  we 
youngsters  on  Sabbath  afternoons  used  to  crowd 
round  our  dear  old  grandmother,  who,  great 
bowed  spectacles  on  her  nose,  would  read  to  us  from 
"  Yosippon."  On  many  such  occasions  an  unruly 
listener,  with  a  view  to  hurrying  the  distribution  of 
the  "  Sabbathfruit,"  would  endanger  the  stability  of 
the  dish  by  vigorous  tugging  at  the  table-cloth,  and 
elicit  the  reproof  suggested  by  our  reading:  "You 

1  Aristotle,  ffist.  Anim.,  8,  28.      Nicephorus   Gregoras,  Hist. 

Byzaht.,  p.  805. 

249 


250  THE  JEW'S   QUEST    IN   AFRICA 

are  a  veritable  Sambation!" — Aristotle,  Pliny, 
Olympia,  Cyrene,  "  Yosippon,"  and  grandam — all 
unite  to  whet  our  appetite  for  African  novelties. 

Never  has  interest  in  the  subject  been  more  ac- 
tive than  in  our  generation,  and  the  question,  "  What 
is  the  quest  of  the  Jews  in  Africa?"  might  be  applied 
literally  to  the  achievements  of  individual  Jewish 
travellers.  But  our  inquiry  shall  not  be  into  the 
fortunes  of  African  explorers  of  Jewish  extraction; 
not  into  Emm  Pasha's  journey  to  Wadelai  and  Ma- 
gungo;  not  into  the  advisability  of  colonizing  Rus- 
sian Jews  in  Africa;  nor  even  into  the  role  played 
by  a  part  of  northern  Africa  in  the  development  of 
Jewish  literature  and  culture:  briefly,  "The  Jew's 
quest  in  Africa"  is  for  the  remnants  of  the  ten 
lost  tribes. 

For  more  than  eight  hundred  years,  Israel,  en- 
trenched on  his  own  soil,  bade  defiance  to  every 
enemy.  After  the  death  of  Solomon  (978  B.  C.  E.), 
the  kingdom  was  divided,  its  power  declining  in 
consequence.  The  world-monarchy  Assyria  be- 
came an  adversary  to  be  feared  after  Ahaz,  king  of 
Judah,  invited  it  to  assist  him  against  Pekah.  Tig- 
lath-Pileser  conquered  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of 
Israel,  and,  in  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, carried  off  its  subjects  captive  into  Assyria.  In 
the  reign  of  Hosea,  Shalmaneser  finished  what  his 
predecessor  had  begun  (722),  utterly  destroying  the 
kingdom  of  the  north  in  the  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
eighth  year  of  its  independence.  Before  the  catas- 
trophe, a  part  of  its  inhabitants  had  emigrated  to 


THE   JEWS    QUEST    IN   AFRICA  25! 

Arabia,  so  that  there  were  properly  speaking  only 
nine  tribes,  called  by  their  prophets,  chief  among 
them  Hosea  and  Amos,  Ephraim  from  the  most 
powerful  member  of  the  confederacy.  Another  part 
went  to  Adiabene,  a  district  on  the  boundary  be- 
tween Assyria  and  Media,  and  thence  scattered  in 
all  directions  through  the  kingdom  of  the  Medes 
and  Persians. 

The  prophets  of  the  exile  still  hope  for  their  re- 
turn. Isaiah  says  i1  "  The  Lord  will  put  forth  His 
hand  again  the  second  time  to  acquire  the  remnant 
of  his  people,  which  shall  remain,  from  Asshur,  and 
from  Egypt,  and  from  Pathros,  and  from  Cush,  and 
from  Elam,  and  from  Shinar,  and  from  Chamath, 
and  from  the  islands  of  the  sea.  And  he  will  lift  up 
an  ensign  unto  the  nations,  and  will  assemble  the 
outcasts  of  Israel;  and  the  dispersed  of  Judah  will 
he  collect  together  from  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth.  .  .  .  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and 
Judah  shall  not  assail  Ephraim.  .  .  .And  the  Lord 
will  utterly  destroy  the  tongue  of  the  Egyptian  sea. 
.  .  .  And  there  shall  be  a  highway  for  the  remnant 
of  his  people,  which  shall  remain  from  Asshur,  like 
as  it  was  to  Israel  on  the  day  that  they  came  up  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt."  In  Jeremiah2  we  read :  "  Be- 
hold I  will  bring  them  from  the  north  country,  and 
I  will  gather  them  from  the  farthest  ends  of  the 
earth  ...  for  I  am  become  a  father  to  Israel,  and 
Ephraim  is  my  first-born."  Referring  to  this  pas- 
sage, the  Talmud  maintains  that  the  prophet  Jere- 
miah led  the  lost  tribes  back  to  Palestine. 

1  Isaiah  xi,  11-16,  2  Jeremiah  xxxi,  8-9, 


252  THE   JEW'S   QUEST    IN   AFRICA 

The  second  Isaiah1  says  "to  the  prisoners,  Go 
forth;  to  those  that  are  in  darkness,  Show  your- 
selves." "  Ye  shall  be  gathered  up  one  by  one.  .  .  . 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  on  that  day  that  the  great 
cornet  shall  be  blown,  and  then  shall  come  those 
that  are  lost  in  the  land  of  Asshur,  and  those  who 
are  outcasts  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  they  shall 
prostrate  themselves  before  the  Lord  on  the  holy 
mount  at  Jerusalem." 

And  Ezekiel  :2  "  Thou  son  of  man,  take  unto  thy- 
self one  stick  of  \vood,  and  write  upon  it,  '  For  Ju- 
dah,  and  for  the  children  of  Israel  his  companions'; 
then  take  another  stick,  and  write  upon  it,  '  For  Jo- 
seph, the  stick  of  Ephraim,  and  for  all  the  house  of 
Israel  his  companions':  and  join  them  one  to  the 
other  unto  thee  as  one  stick;  and  they  shall  become 
one  in  thy  hand." 

These  prophetical  passages  show  that  at  the  time 
of  the  establishment  of  the  second  commonwealth 
the  new  homes  of  the  ten  tribes  were  accurately 
known.  After  that,  for  more  than  five  hundred 
years,  history  is  silent  on  the  subject.  From  fre- 
quent allusions  in  the  prophetical  writings,  we  may 
gather  that  efforts  were  made  to  re-unite  Judah  and 
the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  it  seems  highly  probable 
that  they  were  successful,  such  of  the  ten  tribes  as 
had  not  adopted  the  idolatrous  practices  of  the 
heathen  returning  with  the  exiles  of  Judah.  In  the 
Samaritan  book  of  Joshua,  it  is  put  down  that  many 
out  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  migrated  to  the  north  of 

Isaiah  xlix.  9  and  xxvii.  13.         2  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  16-17. 


THE   JEW'S   QUEST   IN   AFRICA  253 

Palestine  at  the  time  when  Zerubbabel  and  Ezra 
brought  the  train  of  Babylonian  exiles  to  Jerusalem. 
In  Talmudic  literature  we  occasionally  run 
across  a  slight  reference  to  the  ten  tribes,  as,  for  in- 
stance, Mar  Sutra's  statement  that  they  journeyed 
to  Iberia,  at  that  time  synonymous  with  Spain, 
though  the  rabbi  probably  had  northern  Africa  in 
mind.  Another  passage  relates  that  the  Babylo- 
nian scholars  decided  that  no  one  could  tell  whether 
he  was  descended  from  Reuben  or  from  Simon,  the 
presumption  in  their  mind  evidently  being  that  the 
ten  tribes  had  become  amalgamated  with  Judah  and 
Benjamin.  If  they  are  right,  if  from  the  time  of 
Jeremiah  to  the  Syrian  domination,  a  slow  process 
of  assimilation  was  incorporating  the  scattered  of 
the  ten  tribes  into  the  returned  remnant  of  Ju- 
dah and  Benjamin,  then  the  ten  lost  tribes  have  no 
existence,  and  we  are  dealing  with  a  myth.  But 
the  question  is  still  mooted.  The  prophets  and  the 
rabbis  continually  dwell  upon  the  hope  of  reunion. 
The  Pesikta  is  the  first  authority  to  locate  the  exile 
home  of  the  ten  tribes  on  the  Sambation.  A  pecu- 
liarly interesting  conversation  on  the  future  of  the 
ten  tribes  between  two  learned  doctors  of  the  Law, 
Rabbi  Akiba  and  Rabbi  Eliezer,  has  been  preserved. 
Rabbi  Eliezer  maintains :  "  The  Eternal  has  removed 
the  ten  tribes  from  their  soil,  and  cast  them  forth 
into  another  land,  as  irrevocably  as  this  day  goes 
never  to  return."  Rabbi  Akiba,  the  enthusiastic 
nationalist,  thinks  very  differently :  "  No,  day  sinks, 
and  passes  into  night  only  to  rise  again  in  renewed 


254  THE  JEW'S   QUEST   IN   AFRICA 

brilliance.     So  the  ten  tribes,  lost  in  darkness,  will 
reappear  in  refulgent  light" 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  Akiba's  journeys,  ex- 
tending into  Africa,  and  undertaken  to  bring 
about  the  restoration  of  the  independence  of 
Judaea,  had  as  their  subsidiary,  unavowed  purpose, 
the  discovery  of  the  ten  lost  tribes.  The  "  Dark 
Continent "  played  no  unimportant  role  in  Talmudic 
writings,  special  interest  attaching  to  their  narra- 
tives of  the  African  adventures  of  Alexander  the 
Great.1  On  one  occasion,  it  is  said,  the  wise  men 
of  Africa  appeared  in  a  body  before  the  king,  and 
offered  him  gifts  of  gold.  He  refused  them,  being 
desirous  only  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  cus- 
toms, statutes,  and  law,  of  the  land.  They,  there- 
tore,  gave  him  an  account  of  a  lawsuit  which  was 
exciting  much  attention  at  the  time:  A  man  had 
bought  a  field  from  his  friend  and  neighbor,  and 
while  digging  it  up,  had  found  a  treasure  which  he 
refused  to  keep,  as  he  considered  it  the  property  of 
the  original  owner  of  the  field.  The  latter  main- 
tained that  he  had  sold  the  land  and  all  on  and 
within  it,  and,  therefore,  had  no  claim  upon  the 
treasure.  The  doctors  of  the  law  put  an  end  to 
the  dispute  by  the  decision  that  the  son  of  the  one 
contestant  was  to  take  to  wife  the  daughter  of  the 
other,  the  treasure  to  be  their  marriage  portion. 
Alexander  marvelled  greatly  at  this  decision.  "  With 
us,"  he  said,  '*  the  government  would  have  had  the 
litigants  killed,  and  would  have  confiscated  the 

1  Cmp.  Spiegel,  Die  Alexander  sag  en  bet  den  Orientalen. 


THE  JEW'S    QUEST   IN  AFRICA  255 


treasure."  Hereupon  one  of  the  wise  men  ex- 
claimed: "  Does  the  sun  shine  in  your  land?  Have 
you  dumb  beasts  where  you  live?  If  so,  surely  it  is 
for  them  that  God  sends  down  the  rain,  and  lets  the 
sun  shine!" 

In  biblical  literature,  too,  frequent  mention  is 
made  of  Africa.  The  first  explorer  of  the  "  Dark  Con- 
tinent" was  the  patriarch  Abraham,  who  journeyed 
from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  through  Mesopotamia, 
across  the  deserts  and  mountains  of  Asia,  to  Zoan, 
the  metropolis  of  ancient  Egypt.  When  Moses  fled 
from  before  Pharaoh,  he  found  refuge,  according  to 
a  Talmudic  legend,  in  the  Soudan,  where  he  became 
ruler  of  the  land  for  forty  years,  and  later  on,  Egypt 
was  the  asylum  for  the  greater  number  of  Jewish 
rebels  and  fugitives.  As  early  as  the  reign  of  King 
Solomon,  ships  freighted  with  silver  sailed  to  Africa, 
and  Jewish  sailors  in  part  manned  the  Phoenician 
vessels  despatched  to  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea  to  be 
loaded  with  the  gold  dust  of  Africa,  whose  usual 
name  in  Hebrew  was  Ophir,  meaning  gold  dust. 
In  the  Talmud  Africa  is  generally  spoken  of  as  "  the 
South,"  owing  to  its  lying  south  of  Palestine.  One 
of  its  proverbs  runs  thus:  "  He  who  would  be  wise, 
must  go  to  the  South."  The  story  of  Alexander  the 
Great  and  the  African  lawyers  is  probably  a  sample 
of  the  wisdom  lauded.  Nor  were  the  doctors  of  the 
Talmud  ignorant  of  the  physical  features  of  the 
country.  A  scoffer  asked,  "Why  have  Africans 
such  broad  feet."  "  Because  they  live  on  marshy 
soil,  and  must  go  barefoot,"  was  the  ready  answer 
given  by  Hillel  the  Great. 


256  THE  JEW'S  QUEST   IN  AFRICA 

In  the  course  of  a  discussion  about  the  appear- 
ance of  the  cherubim,  Akiba  pointed  out  that  in 
Africa  a  little  child  is  called  u  cherub."  Thence  he 
inferred  that  the  faces  of  cherubim  resembled  those 
of  little  children.  On  his  travels  in  Africa,  the  same 
rabbi  was  appealed  to  by  a  mighty  negro  king: 
"  See,  I  am  black,  and  my  wife  is  black.  How  is  it 
that  my  children  are  white? "  Akiba  asked  him 
whether  there  were  pictures  in  his  palace.  "  Yes," 
answered  the  monarch,  "  my  sleeping  chamber  is 
adorned  with  pictures  of  white  men."  "  That  solves 
the  puzzle,"  said  Akiba.  Evidently  civilization  had 
taken  root  in  Africa  more  than  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago. 

To  return  to  the  lost  tribes:  No  land  on  the 
globe  has  been  considered  too  small,  none  too 
distant,  for  their  asylum.  The  first  country  to  sug- 
gest itself  was  the  one  closest  to  Palestine,  Arabia, 
the  bridge  between  Asia  and  Africa.  In  the  first 
centuries  of  this  era,  two  great  kingdoms,  Yathrib 
and  Chaibar,  flourished  there,  and  it  is  altogether 
probable  that  Jews  were  constantly  emigrating 
thither.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  thousands  were  transported  to  Arabia,  par- 
ticularly to  Yemen,  \vhere  entire  tribes  accepted  the 
Jewish  faith.  Recent  research  has  made  us  familiar 
with  the  kingdom  of  Tabba  (500)  and  the  Himya- 
rites.  Their  inscriptions  and  the  royal  monuments 
of  the  old  African-Jewish  population  prove  that 
Jewish  immigrants  must  have  been  numerous  here, 
as  in  southern  Arabia.  When  Mohammed  unfurled 


THE   JEW  S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  257 

the  banner  of  the  Prophet,  and  began  his  march 
through  the  desert,  his  followers  counted  not  a  few 
Jews.  In  similar  numbers  they  spread  to  northern 
Africa,  where,  towards  the  end  of  the  first  thousand 
years  of  the  Christian  era,  they  boasted  large  com- 
munities, and  played  a  prominent  role  in  Jewish 'lit- 
erature, as  is  attested  by  the  important  contributions 
to  Jewish  law,  grammar,  poetry,  and  medicine,  by 
such  men  as  Isaac  Israeli,  Chananel,  Jacob  ben  Nis- 
sim,  Dunash  ben  Labrat,  Yehuda  Chayyug,  and 
later,  Isaac  Alfassi.  When  this  north-African  Jew- 
ish literature  was  at  its  zenith,  interest  in  the  where- 
abouts of  the  ten  tribes  revived,  first  mention  of 
them  being  made  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  ninth 
century.  One  day  there  appeared  in  the  academy 
at  Kairwan  an  adventurer  calling  himself  Eldad, 
and  representing  himself  to  be  a  member  of  the 
tribe  of  Dan.  Marvellous  tales  he  told  the  wonder- 
ing rabbis  of  his  own  adventures,  which  read  like 
a  Jewish  Odyssey,  and  of  the  independent  govern- 
ment established  by  Jews  in  Africa,  of  which  he 
claimed  to  be  a  subject.  Upon  its  borders,  he  re- 
ported, live  the  Levitical  singers,  the  descendants  of 
Moses,  .who,  in  the  days  of  Babylonish  captivity, 
hung  their  harps  upon  the  willows,  refusing  to  sing 
the  songs  of  Zion  upon  the  soil  of  the  stranger,  and 
willing  to  sacrifice  limb  and  life  rather  than  yield 
to  the  importunities  of  their  oppressors.  A  cloud 
had  enveloped  and  raised  them  aloft,  bearing  them 
to  the  land  of  Chavila  (Ethiopia).  To  protect  them 
from  then  enemies,  their  refuge  in  a  trice  was  gir- 


258  THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

died  by  the  famous  Sambation,  a  stream,  not  of 
waters,  but  of  rapidly  whirling  stones  and  sand,  tu- 
multuously  flowing  during  six  days,  and  resting  on 
the  Sabbath,  when  the  country  was  secured  against 
foreign  invasion  by  a  dense  cloud  of  dust.  With 
their  neighbors,  the  sons  of  Moses  have  intercourse 
only  from  the  banks  of  the  stream,  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  pass.1 

This  clever  fellow,  who  had  travelled  far  and  wide, 
and  knew  men  and  customs,  gave  an  account  also 
of  a  shipwreck  which  he  had  survived,  and  of  his 
miraculous  escape  from  cannibals,  who  devoured  his 
companions,  but,  finding  him  too  lean  for  their 
taste,  threw  him  into  a  dungeon.  Homer's  Odys- 
sey involuntarily  suggests  itself  to  the  reader.  In 
Spain  we  lose  trace  of  the  singular  adventurer,  who 
must  have  produced  no  little  excitement  in  the  Jew- 
ish world  of  his  day. 

Search  for  the  ten  tribes  had  now  re-established 
itself  as  a  subject  of  perennial  interest.  In  the  hope 
of  the  fulfilment  of  the  biblical  promise:  "The 
sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver 
from  between  his  feet,  until  he  comes  to  Shiloh," 
even  the  most  famous  Jewish  traveller  of  the  middle 
ages,  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  did  not  disdain  to  follow 
up  the  "traces  of  salvation."  Nor  has  interest 
waned  in  our  generation.  Whenever  we  hear  of  a 
Jewish  community  whose  settlement  in  its  home  is 
tinged  with  mystery,  we  straightway  seek  to  estab- 
lish its  connection  with  the  ten  lost  tribes.  They 

'Cmp.  A.  Epstein,  Eldad  ha-Dani,  p.  x. 


THE    JEW  S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  259 

have  been  placed  in  Armenia,  Syria,  and  Mesopo- 
tamia, where  the  Nestorian  Christians,  calling  them- 
selves sons  of  Israel,  live  to  the  number  of  two 
hundred  thousand,  observing  the  dietary  laws  and 
the  Sabbath,  and  offering  up  sacrifices.  They  have 
been  sought  in  Afghanistan,  India,  and  Western 
Asia,  the  land  of  the  "  Beni  Israel/'  with  Jewish 
features,  Jewish  names,  such  as  Solomon,  David, 
and  Benjamin,  and  Jewish  laws,  such  as  that  of  the 
Levirate  marriage.  One  chain  of  hills  in  their  coun- 
try bears  the  name  "  Solomon's  Mountains,"  another 
"  Amram  Chain,"  and  the.most  warlike  tribe  is  called 
Ephraim,  while  the  chief  tenet  of  their  law  is  "  eye 
for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth."  Search  for  the  lost  has 
been  carried  still  further,  to  the  coast  of  China,  to 
the  settlements  of  Cochin  and  Malabar,  where  white 
and  black  Jews  write  their  law  upon  scrolls  of  red 
goatskin. 

Westward  the  quest  has  reached  America:  Man- 
asseh  ben  Israel  and  Mordecai  Noah,  the  latter  of 
whom  hoped  to  establish  a  Jewish  commonwealth 
at  Ararat  near  Buffalo,  in  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury, believed  that  they  had  discovered  traces  of  the 
lost  tribes  among  the  Indians.  The  Spaniards  in 
Mexico  identified  them  with  the  red  men  of  Ana- 
huac  and  Yucatan,  a  theory  suggested  probably  by 
the  resemblance  between  the  Jewish  and  the  Indian 
aquiline  nose.  These  would-be  ethnologists  obvi- 
ously did  not  take  into  account  the  Mongolian  de- 
scent of  the  Indian  tribes  and  their  pre-historic 
migration  from  Asia  to  America  across  Behring 
Strait. 


26O  THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

Europe  has  not  escaped  the  imputation  of  being 
the  refuge  of  the  lost  tribes.  When  Alfonso  XL 
expelled  the  Saracens  from  Toledo,  the  Jews  of  the 
city  asked  permission  to  remain  on  the  plea  that 
they  were  not  descendants  of  the  murderers  of 
Jesus,  but  of  those  ten  tribes  whom  Nebuchadnez- 
zar had  sent  to  Tarshish  as  colonists.  The  petition 
was  granted,  and  their  explanation  filed  among  the 
royal  archives  at  Toledo. 

The  English  have  taken  absorbing  interest  in  the 
fate  of  the  lost  tribes,  maintaining  by  most  elab- 
orate arguments  their  identity  with  the  inhabitants 
of  Scandinavia  and  England.  The  English  people 
have  always  had  a  strong  biblical  bias.  To  this  day 
they  live  in  the  Bible,  and  are  flattered  by  the  hy- 
pothesis that  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  kindred  tribes, 
who  crossed  over  to  Britain  under  Hengist  and 
Horsa  in  the  fifth  century,  were  direct  descendants 
of  Abraham,  their  very  name  Sakkasuna,  that  is, 
sons  of  Isaac,  vouching  for  the  truth  of  the  theory. 
The  radical  falseness  of  the  etymology  is  patent. 
The  gist  of  their  argument  is  that  the  tribe  of  Dan 
settled  near  the  source  of  the  Jordan,  becoming  the 
maritime  member  of  the  Israelitish  confederacy,  and 
calling  forth  from  Deborah  the  rebuke  that  the  sons 
of  Dan  tarried  in  ships  when  the  land  stood  in  need 
of  defenders.  And  now  comes  the  most  extrava- 
gant of  the  vagaries  of  the  etymological  reasoner: 
he  suggests  a  connection  between  Dan,  Danube, 
Danai,  and  Danes,  and  so  establishes  the  English 
nation's  descent  from  the  tribes  of  Israel. 


THE   JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  26 1 

In  the  third  decade  of  this  century,  when  Shalma- 
neser's  obelisk  was  found  with  the  inscription 
"  Tribute  of  Jehu,  son  of  Omri,"  English  investi- 
gators, seeking  to  connect  it  with  the  Cimbric  Cher- 
sonese in  Jutland,  at  once  took  it  for  "  Yehu  ibn 
Umry."  An  Irish  legend  has  it  that  Princess  Tephi 
came  to  Ireland  from  the  East,  and  married  King 
Heremon,  or  Fergus,  of  Scotland.  In  her  suite  was 
the  prophet  Ollam  Folia,  and  his  scribe  Bereg.  The 
princess  was  the  daughter  of  Zedekiah,  the  prophet 
none  other  than  Jeremiah,  and  the  scribe,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  Baruch.  The  usefulness  of  this  fine- 
spun analogy  becomes  apparent  when  we  recall  that 
Queen  Victoria  boasts  descent  from  Fergus  of 
Scotland,  and  so  is  furnished  with  a  line  of  descent 
which  would  justify  pride  if  it  rested  on  fact  instead 
of  fancy.  On  the  other  hand,  imagine  the  dismay 
of  Heinrich  von  Treitschke,  Saxon  par  excellence, 
were  it  proved  that  he  is  a  son  of  the  ten  lost  tribes! 

"  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews! "  is  the  motto  of  a  con- 
siderable movement  connected  with  the  lost  tribes 
in  England  and  America.  More  than  thirty  weekly 
and  monthly  journals  are  discharging  a  volley  of 
eloquence  in  the  propaganda  of  the  new  doctrine, 
and  lecturers  and  societies  keep  interest  in  it  alive. 
An  apostolic  believer  in  the  Israelitish  descent  of  the 
British  has  recently  turned  up  in  the  person  of  a 
bishop,  and  the  identity  of  the  ancient  and  the  mod- 
ern people  has  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  dog- 
ma of  the  Christian  Church  by  a  sect  which,  accord- 
ing to  a  recent  utterance  of  an  Indianapolis  preacher, 


262  THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

holds  the  close  advent  of  Judgment  Day.  Yet, 
the  ten  lost  tribes  may  be  a  myth! 

One  thing  seems  certain:  If  scattered  remnants 
do  exist  here  and  there,  they  must  be  sought  in 
Africa,  in  that  part,  moreover,  most  accessible  to 
travellers,  that  is  to  say,  Abyssinia,  situated  in  the 
central  portion  of  the  great,  high  tableland  of  east- 
ern Africa  between  the  basin  of  the  Nile  and  the 
shores  of  the  Red  and  the  Arabian  Sea — a  tremen- 
dous, rocky,  fortress-like  plateau,  intersected  closely 
with  a  network  of  river-beds,  the  Switzerland  of 
Africa,  as  many  please  to  call  it.  Alexander  the 
Great  colonized  many  thousands  of  Jews  in  Egypt, 
on  the  southern  and  northern  coasts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  in  south-eastern  Africa.  Thence  they 
penetrated  into  the  interior  of  Abyssinia,  where  they 
founded  a  mighty  kingdom  extending  to  the  river 
Sobat.  Abyssinian  legends  have  another  version 
of  the  history  of  this  realm.  It  is  said  that  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  bore  King  Solomon  a  son,  named 
Menelek,  whom  he  sent  to  Abyssinia  with  a  numer- 
ous retinue  to  found  an  independent  kingdom.  In 
point  of  fact,  Judaism  seems  to  have  been  the  domi- 
nant religion  in  Abyssinia  until  340  of  the  Christian 
era,  and  the  Golah  of  Cush  (the  exiles  in  Abyssinia) 
is  frequently  referred  to  in  mediaeval  Hebrew  litera- 
ture. 

The  Jewish  kingdom  flourished  until  a  great  rev- 
olution broke  out  in  the  ninth  century  under  Queen 
Judith  (Sague),  who  conquered  Axum,  and  reigned 
over  Abyssinia  for  forty  years.  The  Jewish  ascend- 


THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  263 

ancy  lasted  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Riippell,1 
a  noted  African  explorer,  gives  the  names  of  Jewish 
dynasties  from  the  ninth  to  the  thirteenth  century. 
In  the  wars  of  the  latter  and  the  following  century, 
the  Jews  lost  their  kingdom,  keeping  only  the  prov- 
ince of  Semen,  guarded  by  inaccessible  mountains. 
Benjamin  of  Tudela  describes  it  as  "  a  land  full  of 
mountains,  upon  whose  rocky  summits  they  have 
perched  their  towns  and  castles,  holding  independ- 
ent sway  to  the  mortal  terror  of  their  neighbors." 
Combats,  persecutions,  and  banishments  lasted  un- 
til the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Anarchy 
reigned,  overwhelming  Gideon  and  Judith,  the  last 
of  the  Jewish  dynasty,  and  proving  equally  fatal  to 
the  Christian  empire,  whose  Negus  Theodore  like- 
wise traced  his  descent  from  Solomon.  So,  after  a 
thousand  years  of  mutual  hostility,  the  two  ancient 
native  dynasties,  claiming  descent  from  David  and 
Solomon,  perished  together,  but  the  memory  of  the 
Jewish  princes  has  not  died  out  in  the  land. 

The  Abyssinian  Jews  are  called  Falashas,  the 
exiled.2  They  live  secluded  in  the  province  west  of 
Takazzeh,  and  their  number  is  estimated  by  some 
travellers  to  be  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand, 
while  my  friend  Dr.  Edward  Glaser  judges  them  to 
be  only  twenty-five  thousand  strong.  Into  the 
dreary  wastes  inhabited  by  these  people,  German 
and-  English  missionaries  have  found  their  way  to 
spread  among  them  the  blessings  of  Christianity. 
The  purity  of  these  blessings  may  be  inferred  from 

1  Riippell,  Reisen  in  A^ubien,  p.  416. 

2  Cmp.  Epstein,  /.  c.,  p.  141. 


264  THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFfctCA 

the  names  of  the  missionaries:  Flad,  Schiller,  Bran- 
deis,  Stern,  and  Rosenbaum. 

Information  about  the  misery  of  the  Falashas 
penetrated  to  Europe,  and  induced  the  Alliance  Is- 
raelite Universelle  to  despatch  a  Jewish  messenger  to 
Abyssinia.  Choice  fell  upon  Joseph  Halevy,  pro- 
fessor of  Oriental  languages  at  Paris,  one  of  the 
most  thorough  of  Jewish-  scholars,  than  whom  none 
could  be  better  qualified  for  the  mission.  It  was  a 
memorable  moment  when  Halevy,  returned  from  his 
great  journey  to  Abyssinia,  addressed  the  meeting  of 
the  Alliance  on  July  30,  1868,  as  follows:1  "The  an- 
cient land  of  Ethiopia  has  at  last  disclosed  the 
secret  concerning  the  people  of  whom  we  hither- 
to knew  naught  but  the  name.  In  the  midst  of  the 
most  .varied  fortunes  they  clung  to  the  Law  pro- 
claimed on  Sinai,  and  constant  misery  has  not 
drained  them  of  the  vitality  which  enables  nations 
to  fulfil  the  best  requirements  of  modern  society." 

Adverse  circumstances  robbed  Halevy  of  a  great 
part  of  the  material  gathered  on  his  trip.  What  he 
rescued  and  published  is  enough  to  give  us  a  more 
detailed  and  accurate  account  of  the  Falashas  than 
we  have  hitherto  possessed.  He  reports  that  they 
address  their  prayers  to  one  God,  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob;  that  they  feel  pride  in  be- 
longing to  the  old,  yet  ever  young  tribe  which  has 
exercised  dominant  influence  upon  the  fate  of  men; 
that  love  for  the  Holy  Land  fills  their  hearts;  and 
that  the  memory  of  Israel's  glorious  past  is  their 

1  Alliance  Report  for  1868. 


THE   JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  265 

spiritual  stay.     One  of  the  articles  of  their  faith  is 
the  restoration  of  Jewish  nationality. 

The  Falashas  speak  two  languages,  that  of  the 
land,  the  Amharic,  a  branch  of  the  ancient  Geez,  and 
the  Agau,  a  not  yet  classified  dialect.  Their  names 
are  chiefly  biblical.  While  in  dress  they  are  like 
their  neighbors,  the  widest  difference  prevails  be- 
tween their  manners  and  customs  and  those  of  the 
other  inhabitants  of  the  land.  In  the  midst  of  a 
slothful,  debauched  people,  they  are  distinguished 
for  simplicity,  diligence,  and  ambition.  Their 
houses  for  the  most  part  are  situated  near  running 
water;  hence,  their  cleanly  habits.  At  the  head  of 
each  village  is  a  synagogue  called  Mesgid,  whose 
Holy  of  holies  may  be  entered  only  by  the  priest  on 
the  Day  of  Atonement,  while  the  people  pray  in  the 
court  without.  Next  to  the  synagogue  live  the 
monks  (Nesirim).  The  priests  offer  up  sacrifices, 
as  in  ancient  times,  daily  except  on  the  Day  of 
Atonement,  the  most  important  being  that  for  the 
repose  of  the  dead.  On  the  space  surrounding  the 
synagogue  stand  the  houses  of  the  priests,  who,  in 
addition  to  their  religious  functions,  fill  the  office 
of  teachers  of  the  young.  The  Falashas  are  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  Bible,  but  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
Hebrew  language.  Their  ritual  has  been  published 
by  Joseph  Halevy,  who  has  added  a  Hebrew  trans- 
lation, showing  its  almost  perfect  identity  with  the 
traditional  form  of  Jewish  prayer.  About  their  de- 
votional exercises  Halevy  says :  "  From  the  holy 
precincts  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  rise  aloft  to 


266  THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

heaven.  From  midnight  on,  we  hear  the  clear, 
rhythmical,  melancholy  intonation  of  the  precentor, 
the  congregation  responding  in  a  monotonous  reci- 
tative. Praise  of  the  Eternal,  salvation  of  Israel, 
love  of  Zion,  hope  of  a  happy  future  for  all  man- 
kind— these  form  the  burden  of  their  prayers,  call- 
ing forth  sighs  and  tears,  exclamations  of  hope  and 
joy.  Break  of  day  still  finds  the  worshippers  as- 
sembled, and  every  evening  without  fail,  as  the  sun 
sinks  to  rest,  their  loud  prayer  (beginning  with 
Abba!  Abba!  Lord!  Lord!)  twice  wakes  the  echoes."1 

Their  well  kept  houses  are  presided  over  by  their 
women,  diligent  and  modest.  Polygamy  is  un- 
known. There  are  agriculturists  and  artisans,  rep- 
resentatives of  every  handicraft:  smiths,  tailors,  pot- 
ters, weavers,  and  builders.  Commerce  is  not  es- 
teemed, trading  with  slaves  being  held  in  special  ab- 
horrence. Their  laws  permit  the  keeping  of  a  slave 
for  only  six  years.  If  at  the  expiration  of  that  pe- 
riod he  embraces  their  religion,  he  is  free.  They 
are  brave  warriors,  thousands  of  them  having  fought 
in  the  army  of  Negus  Theodore. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  intellectually  they  are 
undeveloped.  They  have  a  sort  of  Midrash,  which 
apparently  has  been  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  by  word  of  mouth.  The  misfortunes 
they  have  endured  have  predisposed  them  to  mysti- 
cism, and  magicians  and  soothsayers  are  numerous 
and  active  among  them.  But  they  are  eager  for  in- 
formation. 

1  Halevy,  Les  prieres  des  Falashas,  Introduction. 


THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  267 

King  Theodore  protected  them,  until  missionaries 
poisoned  his  mind  against  the  Falashas.  In  1868 
he  summoned  a  deputation  of  their  elders,  and  com- 
manded them  to  accept  Christianity.  Upon  their 
refusal  the  king  ordered  his  soldiers  to  fire  on  the 
rebels.  Hundreds  of  heads  were  raised,  and  the 
men,  baring  their  breasts,  cried  out:  "  Strike,  O  our 
King,  but  ask  us  not  to  perjure  ourselves."  Moved 
to  admiration  by  their  intrepidity,  the  king  loaded 
the  deputies  with  presents,  and  dismissed  them  in 
peace. 

The  missionaries — Europe  does  not  yet  know  how 
often  the  path  of  these  pious  men  is  marked  by  tears 
and  blood — must  be  held  guilty  of  many  of  the  bit- 
ter trials  of  the  Falashas.  In  the  sixties  they  suc- 
ceeded in  exciting  Messianic  expectations.  Sud- 
denly, from  district  to  district,  leapt  the  news  that 
the  Messiah  was  approaching  to  lead  Israel  back  to 
Palestine.  A  touching  letter  addressed  by  the  elders 
of  the  Falashas  to  the  representatives  of  the  Jewish 
community  at  Jerusalem,  whom  it  never  reached, 
was  found  by  a  traveller,  and  deserves  to  be  quoted: 

"  Has  the  time  not  yet  come  when  we  must  return 
to  the  Holy  Land  and  Holy  City?  For,  we  are 
poor  and  miserable.  We  have  neither  judges  nor 
prophets.  If  the  time  has  arrived,  we  pray  you  send 
us  the  glad  tidings.  Great  fear  has  fallen  upon  us 
that  we  may  miss  the  opportunity  to  return.  Many 
say  that  the  time  is  here  for  us  to  be  reunited  with 
you  in  the  Holy  City,  .to  bring  sacrifices  in  the 
Temple  of  our  Holy  Land.  For  the  sake  of  the 


268  THE   JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

love  we  bear  you,  send  us  a  message.  Peace  with 
you  and  all  dwelling  in  the  land  given  by  the  Lord 
to  Moses  on  Sinai !  " 

Filled  with  the  hope  of  redemption,  large  num- 
bers of  the  Falashas,  at  their  head  venerable  old 
men  holding  aloft  banners  and  singing  pious  songs, 
at  that  time  left  their  homes.  Ignorant  of  the  road 
to  be  taken,  they  set  their  faces  eastward,  hoping  to 
reach  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea.  The  distance  was 
greater  than  they  could  travel.  At  Axum  they 
came  to  a  stop  disabled,  and  after  three  years  the 
last  man  had  succumbed  to  misery  and  privation. 

The  distress  of  the  Falashas  is  extreme,  but  they 
count  it  sweet  alleviation  if  their  sight  is  not  troubled 
by  missionaries.  At  a  time  when  the  attention  of 
the  civilized  world  is  directed  to  Africa,  European 
Jews  should  not  be  found  wanting  in  care  for  their 
unfortunate  brethren  in  faith  in  the  "  Dark  Conti- 
nent." Abundant  reasons  recommend  them  to  our 
loving-kindness.  They  are  Jews — they  would  suf- 
fer a  thousand  deaths  rather  than  renounce  the  cove- 
nant sealed  on  Sinai.  They  are  unfortunate;  since 
the  civil  war,  they  have  suffered  severely  under  all 
manner  of  persecution.  Mysticism  and  ignorance 
prevail  among  them — the  whole  community  pos- 
sesses a  single  copy  of  the  Pentateuch.  Finally, 
they  show  eager  desire  for  spiritual  regeneration. 
When  Halevy  took  leave  of  them,  a  handsome 
youth  threw  himself  at  his  feet,  and  said:  "  My  lord, 
take  me  with  you  to  the  land  of  the  Franks.  Gladly 
will  I  undergo  the  hardships  of  the  journey.  I  want 


THE    JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  269 

neither  silver  nor  gold — all  I  crave  is  knowledge !  " 
Halevy  brought  the  young  Falasha  to  Paris,  and  he 
proved  an  indefatigable  student,  who  acquired  a 
wealth  of  knowledge  before  his  early  death. 

Despite  the  incubus  of  African  barbarism,  this 
little  Jewish  tribe  on  the  banks  of  the  legend-famed 
Sabbath  stream  has  survived  with  Jewish  vitality 
unbroken  and  purity  'uncontaminated.  With  long- 
ing the  Falashas  are  awaiting  a  future  when  they 
will  be  permitted  to  join  the  councils  of  their  Israel- 
itish  brethren  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  con- 
fess, in  unison  with  them  and  all  redeemed,  en- 
lightened men,  that  "  the  Lord  is  one,  and  His  name 
one." 

The  steadfastness  of  their  faith  imposes  upon  us 
the  obligation  to  bring  them  redemption.  We  must 
unbar  for  them  not  only  Jerusalem,  but  the  whole 
world,  that  they  may  recognize,  as  we  do,  the  eternal 
truth  preached  by  prophet  and  extolled  by  psalmist, 
that  on  the  glad  day  when  the  unity  of  God  is 
acknowledged,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  form 
a  single  confederacy,  banded  together  for  love  and 
peace. 

The  open-eyed  student  of  Jewish  history,  in  which 
the  Falashas  form  a  very  small  chapter,  cannot  fail 
to  note  with  reverence  the  power  and  sacredness  of 
its  genius.  The  race,  the  faith,  the  confession,  all 
is  unparalleled.  Everything  about  it  is  wonder- 
ful— from  Abraham  at  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  shattering 
his  father's  idols  and  proclaiming  the  unity  of  God, 
down  to  Moses  teaching  awed  mankind  the  highest 


2/O  THE   JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA 

ethical  lessons  from  the  midst  of  the  thunders  and 
flames  of  Sinai;  to  the  heroes  and  seers,  whose  ra- 
diant visions  are  mankind's  solace;  to  the  sweet 
singers  of  Israel  extolling  the  virtues  of  men  in 
hymns  and  songs;  to  the  Maccabean  heroes  strug- 
gling to  throw  off  the  Syrian  yoke;  to  venerable 
rabbis  proof  against  the  siren  notes  of  Hellen- 
ism; to  the  gracious  bards  and  profound  thinkers  of 
Andalusia.  The  genius  of  Jewish  history  is  never  at 
rest.  From  the  edge  of  the  wilderness  it  sweeps  on 
to  the  lands  of  civilization,  where  thousands  of  mar- 
tyrs seal  the  confession  of  God's  unity  with  death 
on  ruddy  pyres;  on  through  tears  and  blood,  over 
nations,  across  thrones,  until  the  sun  of  culture, 
risen  to  its  zenith,  sends  its  rays  even  into  the  dark 
Ghetto,  where  a  drama  enacts  itself,  melancholy, 
curious,  whose  last  act  is  being  played  under  our 
very  eyes.  Branch  after  branch  is  dropping  from 
the  timeworn,  weatherbeaten  trunk.  The  ground 
is  thickly  strewn  with  dry  leaves.  Vitality  that  re- 
sisted rain  and  storm  seems  to  be  blasted  by  sun- 
shine. Yet  we  need  not  despair.  The  genius  of 
Jewish  history  has  the  balsam  of  consolation  to 
offer.  It  bids  us  read  in  the  old  documents  of  Is- 
rael's spiritual  struggles,  and  calls  to  our  attention 
particularly  a  parable  in  the  Midrash,  written  when 
the  need  for  its  telling  was  as  sore  as  to-day:  A 
wagon  loaded  with  glistening  axes  was  driven 
through  the  woods.  Plaintive  cries  arose  from  the 
trees:  "Woe,  woe,  there  is  no  escape  for  us,  we 
are  doomed  to  swift  destruction."  A  solitary  oak 


THE   JEW'S    QUEST    IN    AFRICA  2/1 

towering  high  above  the  other  trees  stood  calm, 
motionless.  Many  a  spring  had  decked  its  twigs 
with  tender,  succulent  green.  At  last  it  speaks;  all 
are  silent,  and  listen  respectfully:  "  Possess  your- 
selves in  peace.  All  the  axes  in  the  world  cannot 
harm  you,  if  you  do  not  provide  them  with  handles." 
So  every  weapon  shaped  to  the  injury  of  the  an- 
cient tree  of  Judaism  will  recoil  ineffectual,  unless 
her  sons  and  adherents  themselves  furnish  the  haft. 
There  is  consolation  in  the  thought.  Even  in  sad 
days  it  feeds  the  hope  that  the  time  will  come, 
whereof  the  prophet  spoke,  when  "  all  thy  children 
shall  be  disciples  of  the  Lord ;  and  great  shall  be  the 
peace  of  thy  children." 


A  JEWISH  KING  IN  POLAND 

There  is  a  legend  that  a  Jewish  king  once  reigned 
in  Poland.  It  never  occurs  to  my  mind  without  at 
the  same  time  conjuring  before  me  two  figures. 
The  one  is  that  charming  creation  of  Ghetto  fancy, 
old  Malkoh  "  with  the  stout  heart,"  in  Aaron  Bern- 
stein's Mendel  Gibbor,  who  introduces  herself  with 
the  proud  boast:  Wir  sennen  von  koniglichem  Ge- 
blut  ("  We  are  of  royal  descent ").  The  other  is  a 
less  ideal,  less  attractive  Jew,  whom  I  overheard  in 
the  Casimir,  the  Jewish  quarter  at  Cracow,  in  alter- 
cation with  another  Jew.  The  matter  seemed  of 
vital  interest  to  the  disputants.  The  one  affirmed, 
the  other  denied  as  vigorously,  and  finally  silenced 
his  opponent  with  the  contemptuous  argument: 
"Well,  and  if  it  comes  about,  it  will  last  just  as 
long  as  Saul  Wahl's  Malchus  (reign)." 

Legend  has  always  been  the  companion  of  his- 
tory. For  each  age  it  creates  a  typical  figure,  in 
which  are  fixed,  for  the  information  of  future  times, 
the  fleeting,  subtle  emotions  as  well  as  the  perma- 
nent effects  produced  by  historical  events,  and  this 
constitutes  the  value  of  legendary  lore  in  tracing 
the  development  and  characteristics  of  a  people. 
At  the  same  time  its  magic  charms  connect  the 
links  in  the  chain  of  generations. 
272 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  2/3 

The  legend  about  Saul  Wahl  to  be  known  and 
appreciated  must  first  be  told  as  it  exists,  then  traced 
through  its  successive  stages,  its  historical  kernel 
disentangled  from  the  accretions  of  legend-makers, 
Saul,  the  man  of  flesh  and  blood  discovered,  and 
the  ethical  lessons  it  has  to  teach  derived. 

In  1734,  more  than  a  century  after  Saul's  sup- 
posed reign,  his  great-grandson,  Rabbi  Pinchas, 
resident  successively  in  Leitnik,  Boskowitz,  Waller- 
stein,  Schwarzburg,  Marktbreit,  and  Anspach,  re- 
lated the  story  of  his  ancestor :  "  Rabbi  Samuel  Ju- 
dah's  son  was  the  great  Saul  Wahl  of  blessed  mem- 
ory. All  learned  in  such  matters  well  know  that  his 
surname  Wahl  (choice)  was  given  him,  because  he 
was  chosen  king  in  Poland  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  noble  electors  of  the  land.  I  was  told  by 
my  father  and  teacher,  of  blessed  memory,  that  the 
choice  fell  upon  him  in  this  wise:  Saul  Wahl  was  a 
favorite  with  Polish  noblemen,  and  highly  esteemed 
for  his  shrewdness  and  ability.  The  king  of  Poland 
had  died.  Now  it  was  customary  for  the  great 
nobles  of  Poland  to  assemble  for  the  election  of  a 
new  king  on  a  given  day,  on  which  it  was  impera- 
tive that  a  valid  decision  be  reached.  When  the  day 
came,  many  opinions  were  found  to  prevail  among 
the  electors,  which  could  not  be  reconciled.  Even- 
ing fell,  and  they  realized  the  impossibility  of  elect- 
ing a  king  on  the  legally  appointed  day.  Loth  to 
transgress  their  own  rule,  the  nobles  agreed  to  make 
Saul  Wahl  king  for  the  rest  of  that  day  and  the  fol- 
lowing night,  and  thus  conform  with  the  letter  of  the 


2/4  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

law.  And  so  it  was.  Forthwith  all  paid  him  hom- 
age, crying  out  in  their  own  language:  '  Long  live 
our  lord  and  king ! '  Saul,  loaded  with  royal  honors, 
reigned  that  night.  I  heard  from  my  father  that 
they  gave  into  his  keeping  all  the  documents  in  the 
royal  archives,  to  which  every  king  may  add  what 
commands  he  lists,  and  Wahl  inscribed  many  laws 
and  decrees  of  import  favorable  to  Jews.  My  father 
knew  some  of  them ;  one  was  that  the  murderer  of  a 
Jew,  like  the  murderer  of  a  nobleman,  was  to  suffer 
the  death  penalty.  Life  was  to  be  taken  for  life, 
and  no  ransom  allowed — a  law  which,  in  Poland, 
had  applied  only  to  the  case  of  Christians  of  the  no- 
bility. The  next  day  the  electors  came  to  an  agree- 
ment, and  chose  a  ruler  for  Poland. — That  this  mat- 
ter may  be  remembered,  I  will  not  fail  to  set  forth 
the  reasons  why  Saul  Wahl  enjoyed  such  respect 
with  the  noblemen  of  Poland,  which  is  the  more  re- 
markable as  his  father,  Rabbi  Samuel  Judah,  was 
rabbi  first  at  Padua  and  then  at  Venice,  and  so  lived 
in  Italy.  My  father  told  me  how  it  came  about.  In 
his  youth,  during  his  father's  lifetime,  Saul  \Yahl 
conceived  a  desire  to  travel  in  foreign  parts.  He 
left  his  paternal  home  in  Padua,  and  journeying 
from  town  to  town,  from  land  to  land,  he  at  last 
reached  Brzesc  in  Lithuania.  There  he  married  the 
daughter  of  David  Drucker,  and  his  pittance  being 
small,  he  led  but  a  wretched  life. 

It  happened  at  this  time  that  the  famous,  wealthy 
prince,  Radziwill,  the  favorite  of  the  king,  under- 
took a  great  journey  to  see  divers  lands,  as  is  the 


A    JEWISH     KING    IN    POLAND  2/5 

custom  of  noblemen.  They  travel  far  and  wide 
to  become  acquainted  with  different  fashions  and 
governments.  So  this  prince  journeyed  in  great 
state  from  land  to  land,  until  his  purse  was 
empty.  He  knew  not  what  to  do,  for  he  would  not 
discover  his  plight  to  the  nobles  of  the  land  in  which 
he  happened  to  be;  indeed,  he  did  not  care  to  let 
them  know  who  he  was.  Now,  he  chanced  to  be  in 
Padua,  and  he  resolved  to  unbosom  himself  to  the 
rabbi,  tell  him  that  he  was  a  great  noble  of  the  Pol- 
ish land,  and  borrow  somewhat  to  relieve  his  press- 
ing need.  Such  is  the  manner  of  Polish  noblemen. 
They  permit  shrewd  and  sensible  Jews  to  become 
intimate  with  them  that  they  may  borrow  from 
them,  rabbis  being  held  in  particularly  high  esteem 
and  favor  by  the  princes  and  lords  of  Poland.  So 
it  came  about  that  the  aforesaid  Prince  Radziwill 
sought  out  Rabbi  Samuel  Judah,  and  revealed  his 
identity,  at  the  same  time  discovering  to  him  his 
urgent  need  of  money.  The  rabbi  lent  him  the 
sum  asked  for,  and  the  prince  said,  '  How  can  I 
recompense  you,  returning  good  for  good?'  The 
rabbi  answered,  t  First  I  beg  that  you  deal  kindly 
with  the  Jews  under  your  power,  and  then  that  you 
do  the  good  you  would  show  me  to  my  son  Saul, 
who  lives  in  Brzesc.'  The  prince  took  down  the 
name  and  place  of  abode  of  the  rabbi's  son,  and  hav- 
ing arrived  at  his  home,  sent  for  him.  He  ap- 
peared before  the  prince,  who  found  him  so  wise 
and  clever  that  he  in  every  possible  way  attached 
the  Jew  to  his  own  person,  gave  him  many  proofs 


276  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

of  his  favor,  sounded  his  praises  in  the  ears  of  all 
the  nobles,  and  raised  him  to  a  high  position.  He 
was  so  great  a  favorite  with  all  the  lords  that  on  the 
day  when  a  king  was  to  be  elected,  and  the  peers 
could  not  agree,  rather  than  have  the  day  pass  with- 
out the  appointment  of  a  ruler,  they  unanimously 
resolved  to  invest  Saul  with  royal  power,  calling 
him  Saul  Wahl  to  indicate  that  he  had  been  chosen 
king. — All  this  my  father  told  me,  and  such  new 
matter  as  I  gathered  from  another  source,  I  will  not 
fail  to  set  down  in  another  chapter." — 

"This  furthermore  I  heard  from  my  pious 
father,  when,  in  1734,  he  lay  sick  in  Fiirth,  where 
there  are  many  physicians.  I  went  from  Markt- 
breit  to  Fiirth,  and  stayed  with  him  for  three  weeks. 
When  I  was  alone  with  him,  he  dictated  his  will  to 
me,  and  then  said  in  a  low  voice:  'This  I  will  tell 
you  that  you  may  know  what  happened  to  our  an- 
cestor Saul  Wahl:  After  the  nobles  had  elected  a 
king  for  Poland,  and  our  ancestor  had  become  great 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Jews,  he  unfortunately  grew 
haughty.  He  had  a  beautiful  daughter,  Handele, 
famed  throughout  Poland  for  her  wit  as  well  as  her 
beauty.  Many  sought  her  in  marriage,  and  among 
her  suitors  was  a  young  Talmudist,  the  son  of  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  rabbis.  (My  father  did  not 
mention  the  name,  either  because  he  did  not  know, 
or  because  he  did  not  wish  to  say  it,  or  mayhap  he 
had  forgotten  it.)  The  great  rabbi  himself  came  to 
Brzesc  with  his  learned  son  to  urge  the  suit.  They 
both  lodged  with  the  chief  elder  of  the  congregation. 


A    JEWISH     KING    IN    POLAND  277 

But  the  pride  of  our  ancestor  was  overweening  In 
his  heart  he  considered  himself  the  greatest,  and  his 
daughter  the  best,  in  the  land,  and  he  said  that  his 
daughter  must  marry  one  more  exalted  than  this 
suitor.  Thus  he  showed  his  scorn  for  a  sage  re- 
vered in  Israel  and  for  his  son,  and  these  two  were 
sore  offended  at  the  discourtesy.  The  Jewish  com- 
munity had  long  been  murmuring  against  our  an- 
cestor Saul  Wahl,  and  it  was  resolved  to  make 
amends  for  his  unkkidness.  One  of  the  most  re- 
spected men  in  the  town  gave  his  daughter  to  the 
young  Talmudist  for  wife,  and  from  that  day  our 
ancestor  had  enemies  among  his  people,  who  con- 
stantly sought  to  do  him  harm.  It  happened  at 
that  time  that  the  wife  of  the  king  whom  the  nobles 
had  chosen  died,  and  several  Jews  of  Brzesc,  in 
favor  with  the  powerful  of  the  land,  in  order  to  ad- 
minister punishment  to  Saul  Wahl,  went  about 
among  the  nobles  praising  his  daughter  for  her  ex- 
ceeding beauty  and  cleverness,  and  calling  her  the 
worthiest  to  wear  the  queenly  crown.  One  of  the 
princes  being  kindly  disposed  to  Saul  Wahl  be- 
trayed their  evil  plot,  and  it  was  frustrated.' " 

Rabbi  Pinchas'  ingenuous  narrative,  charming  in 
its  simple  directness,  closes  wistfully:  "  He  who  has 
not  seen  that  whole  generation,  Saul  Wahl  amid  his 
sons,  sons-in-law,  and  grandsons,  has  failed  to  see 
the  union  of  the  Law  with  mundane  glory,  of  wealth 
with  honor  and  princely  rectitude.  May  the  Lord 
God  bless  us  by  permitting  us  to  rejoice  thus  in  our 
children  and  children's  children ! " 

1  Cmp.  Edelmann,  Gedulath  Shaul,  Introduction. 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

Other  rabbis  of  that  time  have  left  us  versions  of 
the  Saul  Wahl  legend.  They  report  that  he  founded 
a  Beth  ha-Midrash  (college  for  Jewish  studies)  and 
a  little  synagogue,  leaving  them,  together  with  nu- 
merous bequests,  to  the  community  in  which  he  had 
lived,  with  the  condition  that  the  presidency  of  the 
college  be  made  hereditary  in  his  family.  Some  add 
that  they  had  seen  in  Brzesc  a  gold  chain  belonging 
to  him,  his  coat  of  arms  emblazoned  with  the  lion 
of  Judah,  and  a  stone  tablet  on  which  an  account 
of  his  meritorious  deeds  was  graven.  Chain,  es- 
cutcheon, and  stone  have  disappeared,  and  been 
forgotten,  the  legend  alone  survives. 

Now,  what  has  history  to  say? 

Unquestionably,  an  historical  kernel  lies  hidden 
in  the  legend.  Neither  the  Polish  chronicles  of 
those  days  nor  Jewish  works  mention  a  Jewish  king 
of  Poland;  but  from  certain  occurrences,  hints  can 
be  gleaned  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  establish  the 
underlying  truth.  When  Stephen  Bathori  died,  Po- 
land was  hard  pressed.  On  all  sides  arose  pretend- 
ers to  the  throne.  The  most  powerful  aspirant  was 
Archduke  Maximilian  of  Austria,  who  depended  on 
his  gold  and  Poland's  well-known  sympathy  for 
Austria  to  gain  him  the  throne.  Next  came  the 
Duke  of  Ferrara  backed  by  a  great  army  and  the 
favor  of  the  Czar,  and  then,  headed  by  the  crown- 
prince  of  Sweden,  a  crowd  of  less  powerful  claim- 
ants, so  motley  that  a  Polish  nobleman  justly  ex- 
claimed: "  If  you  think  any  one  will  do  to  wear  Po- 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  2/9 

land's  crown  upon  his  pate,  I'll  set  up  my  coachman 
as  king! "  Great  Poland  espoused  the  cause  of 
Sweden,  Little  Poland  supported  Austria,  and  the 
Lithuanians  furthered  the  wishes  of  the  Czar.  In 
reality,  however,  the  election  of  the  king1  was  the  oc- 
casion for  bringing  to  a  crisis  the  conflict  between 
the  two  dominant  families  of  Zamoiski  and  Zbor- 
owski. 

The  election  was  to  take  place  on  August  18, 
1587.  The  electors,  armed  to  the  teeth,  appeared 
on  the  place  designated  for  the  election,  a  fortified 
camp  on  the  Vistula,  on  the  other  side,  of  which 
stood  the  deputies  of  the  claimants.  Night  was  ap- 
proaching, and  the  possibility  of  reconciling  the 
parties  seemed  as  remote  as  ever.  Christopher 
Radziwill,  the  "  castellan  "  of  the  realm,  endeavor- 
ing to  make  peace  between  the  factions,  stealthily 
crept  from  camp  to  camp,  but  evening  deepened 
into  night,  and  still  the  famous  election  cry,  "Zgo- 
da!"  (Agreed!),  was  not  heard. 

According  to  the  legend,  this  is  the  night  of  Saul 
WahPs  brief  royalty.  It  is  said  that  he  was  an 
agent  employed  by  Prince  Radziwill,  and  when  the 
electors  could  not  be  induced  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment, it  occurred  to  the  prince  to  propose  Saul  as 
a  compromise-king.  With  shouts  of  "  Long  live 
King  Saul ! "  the  proposal  was  greeted  by  both  fac- 
tions, and  this  is  the  nucleus  of  the  legend,  which 
with  remarkable  tenacity  has  perpetuated  itself 
down  to  our  generation.  For  the  historical  truth 
of  the  episode  we  have  three  witnesses.  The  chief 


280  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

is  Prince  Nicholas  Christopher  of  Radziwill,  duke 
of  Olyka  and  Nieswiesz,  the  son  of  the  founder  of 
this  still  flourishing  line  of  princes.  His  father  had 
left  the  Catholic  church,  and  joined  the  Protestants, 
but  he  himself  returned  to  Catholicism,  and  won 
fame  by  his  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  described  in 
both  Polish  and  Latin  in  the  work  Peregrinatio 
Hicrosolymitana.  Besides,  he  offered  5000  ducats 
for  the  purchase  of  extant  copies  of  the  Protestant 
"  Radziwill  Bible,"  published  by  his  father,  intend- 
ing to  have  them  destroyed.  On  his  return  jour- 
ney front  the  Holy  Land  he  was  attacked  at 
Pescara  by  robbers,  and  at  Ancona  on  a  Palm 
Sunday,  according  to  his  own  account,  he  found 
himself  destitute  of  means.  He  applied  to  the 
papal  governor,  but  his  story  met  with  incredulity. 
Then  he  appealed  to  a  Jewish  merchant,  offering 
him,  as  a  pawn,  a  gold  box  made  of  a  piece  of  the 
holy  cross  obtained  in  Palestine,  encircled  with 
diamonds,  and  bearing  on  its  top  the  Agnus  dei. 
The  Jew  advanced  one  hundred  crowns,  which 
sufficed  exactly  to  pay  his  lodging  and  attendants. 
Needy  as  before,  he  again  turned  to  the  Jew,  who 
gave  him  another  hundred  crowns,  this  time  without 
exacting  a  pledge,  a  glance  at  his  papal  passport 
having  convinced  him  of  the  prince's  identity.1 

This  is  RadziwilPs  account  in  his  itinerary.  As 
far  as  it  goes,  it  bears  striking  similarity  to  the  nar- 
rative of  Rabbi  Pinchas  of  Anspach,  and  leads  to 
the  certain  conclusion  that  the  legend  rests  upon  an 

1  Cmp.  H.  Goldbaum,  Entlegene  Culturen,  p.  299^". 


A    JEWISH     KING    IN    POLAND  28 1 

historical  substratum.  A  critic  has  justly  remarked 
'that  the  most  vivid  fancy  could  not,  one  hundred 
and  thirty-one  years  after  their  occurrence,  invent, 
in  Anspach,  the  tale  of  a  Polish  magnate's  adven- 
tures in  Italy.  Again,  it  is  highly  improbable  that 
Saul  Wahl's  great-grandson  read  Prince  Radziwill's 
Latin  book,  detailing  his  experiences  to  his  contem- 
poraries. 

There  are  other  witnesses  to  plead  for  the  essen- 
tial truth  of  our  legend.  The  rabbis  mentioned 
before  have  given  accounts  of  SauPs  position,  of  his 
power,  and  the  splendor  of  his  life.  Negative  signs, 
it  is  true,  exist,  arguing  against  the  historical  value 
of  the  legend.  Polish  history  has  not  a  word  to  say 
about  the  ephemeral  king.  In  fact,  there  was  no 
day  fixed  for  the  session  of  the  electoral  diet.  More- 
over, critics  might  adduce  against  the  probability  of 
its  correctness  the  humble  station  of  the  Jews,  and 
the  low  esteem  in  which  the  Radziwills  were  then 
held  by  the  Polish  nobility.  But  it  is  questionable 
whether  these  arguments  are  sufficiently  convincing 
to  strip  the  Saul  Wahl  legend  of  all  semblance  of 
truth.  Polish  historians  are  hardly  fair  in  ignoring 
the  story.  Though  it  turn  out  to  have  been  a  wild 
prank,  it  has  some  historical  justification.  Such 
practical  jokes  are  not  unusual  in  Polish  history. 
Readers  of  that  history  will  recall  the  Respublika 
Babinska,  that  society  of  practical  jokers  which 
drew  up  royal  charters,  and  issued  patents  of  no- 
bility. A  Polish  nobleman  had  founded  the  so- 
ciety in  the  sixteenth  century,  its  membership  being 


282  A    JEWISH     KING    IN    POLAND 

open  only  to  those  distinguished  as  wits.  It  per- 
petrated the  oddest  political  jokes,  appointing  spend' 
thrifts  as  overseers  of  estates,  and  the  most  quarrel- 
some as  justices  of  the  peace.  With  such  proclivi- 
ties, Polish  factions,  at  loggerheads  with  each  other, 
can  easily  be  imagined  uniting  to  crown  a  Jew,  the 
most  harmless  available  substitute  for  a  real  king. 

Our  last  and  strongest  witness — one  compelling 
the  respectful  attention  of  the  severest  court  and  the 
most  incisive  attorney  general — is  the  Russian  pro- 
fessor Berschadzky,  the  author  of  an  invaluable 
work  on  the  history  of  the  Jews  in  Lithuania.  He 
vouches,  not  indeed  for  the  authenticity  of  the 
events  related  by  Rabbi  Pinchas,  but  for  the  reality 
of  Saul  Wahl  himself.  From  out  of  the  Russian 
archives  he  has  been  resurrected  by  Professor 
Berschadzky,  the  first  to  establish  that  Saul  was  a 
man  of  flesh  and  blood.1  He  reproduces  documents 
of  incontestable  authority,  which  report  that  Stephen 
Bathori,  in  the  year  1578,  the  third  of  his  reign, 
awarded  the  salt  monopoly  for  the  whole  of  Poland 
to  Saul  Juditsch,  that  is,  Saul  the  Jew.  Later,  up- 
on the  payment  of  a  high  security,  the  same  Saul 
the  Jew  became  farmer  of  the  imposts.  In  1 580,  his 
name,  together  with  the  names  of  the  heads  of  the 
Jewish  community  of  Brzesc,  figures  in  a  lawsuit 
instituted  to  establish  the  claim  of  the  Jews  upon 
the  fourth  part  of  all  municipal  revenues.  He  rests 
the  claim  on  a  statute  of  Grandduke  Withold,  and 
the  verdict  was  favorable  to  his  side.  This  was  the 

1  Woschod,  1889,  No.  \Qff. 


A    JEWISH     KING    IN    POLAND  283 

time  of  the  election  of  Bathori's  successor,  Sigis- 
mund  III.,  and  after  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
Saul  Juditsch  again  appears  on  the  scene.  On 
February  n,  1588,  the  king  issued  the  following 
notice :  "  Some  of  our  councillors  have  recom- 
mended to  our  attention  the  punctilious  business 
management  of  Saul  Juditsch,  of  the  town  of 
Brzesc,  who,  on  many  occasions  during  the  reigns 
of  our  predecessors,  served  the  crown  by  his  wide 
experience  in  matters  pertaining  to  duties,  taxes, 
and  divers  revenues,  and  advanced  the  financial 
prosperity  of  the  realm  by  his  conscientious  efforts." 
Saul  was  now  entrusted,  for  a  period  of  ten  years, 
with  the  collection  of  taxes  on  bridges,  flour,  and 
brandies,  paying  150,000  gold  florins  for  the  privi- 
lege. A  year  later  he  was  honored  with  the  title 
sluga  krblewski,  "  royal  official,"  a  high  rank  in  the 
Poland  of  the  day,  as  can  be  learned  from  the  royal 
decree  conferring  it:  "We,  King  of  Poland,  having 
convinced  ourself  of  the  rare  zeal  and  distinguished 
ability  of  Saul  Juditsch,  do  herewith  grant  him  a 
place  among  our  royal  officials,  and  that  he  may  be 
assured  of  our  favor  for  him  we  exempt  him  and  his 
lands  for  the  rest  of  his  life  from  subordination  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  any  (  castellan,'  or  any  municipal 
court,  or  of  any  court  in  our  land,  of  whatever  kind 
or  rank  it  may  be;  so  that  if  he  be  summoned  be- 
fore the  court  of  any  judge  or  district,  in  any  matter 
whatsoever,  be  it  great  or  small,  criminal  or  civil,  he 
is  not  obliged  to  appear  and  defend  himself.  His 
goods  may  not  be  distrained,  his  estates  not  used  as 
security,  and  he  himself  can  neither  be  arrested,  nor 


284  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

kept  a  prisoner.  His  refusal  to  appear  before  a 
judge  or  to  give  bail  shall  in  no  wise  be  punishable; 
he  is  amenable  to  no  law  covering  such  cases.  If 
a  charge  be  brought  against  him,  his  accusers,  be 
they  our  subjects  or  aliens,  of  any  rank  or  calling 
whatsoever,  must  appeal  to  ourself,  the  king,  and 
Saul  Juditsch  shall  be  in  honor  bound  to  appear 
before  us  and  defend  himself." 

This  royal  patent  was  communicated  to  all  the 
princes,  lords,  voivodes,  marshals,  "castellans," 
starosts,  and  lower  officials,  in  towrn  and  country, 
and  to  the  governors  and  courts  of  Poland.  Saul 
Juditsch's  name  continues  to  appear  in  the  state 
documents.  In  1593,  he  pleads  for  the  Jews 
of  Brzesc,  who  desire  to  have  their  own  juris- 
diction. In  consequence  of  his  intercession,  Sigis- 
mund  III.  forbids  the  voivodes  (mayors)  and  their 
proxies  to  interfere  in  the  quarrels  of  the  Jews,  of 
whatever  kind  they  may  be.  The  last  mention  of 
Saul  Juditsch's  name  occurs  in  the  records  of  1596, 
when,  in  conjunction  with  his  Christian  townsmen, 
he  pleads  for  the  renewal  of  an  old  franchise,  granted 
by  Grandduke  Withold,  exempting  imported  goods 
from  duty. 

Saul  Wahl  probably  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty, 
dying  in  the  year  1622.  The  research  of  the  his- 
torian has  established  his  existence  beyond  a  perad- 
venture.  He  has  proved  that  there  was  an  indi- 
vidual by  the  name  of  Saul  Wahl,  and  that  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  in  the  history  of  Poland  and  in  that  of 
the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages. 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  285 

After  history,  criticism  has  a  word  to  say.  A 
legend,  as  a  rule,  rests  on  analogy,  on  remarkable 
deeds,  on  notable  events,  on  extraordinary  histori- 
cal phenomena.  In  the  case  of  the  legend  under 
consideration,  all  these  originating  causes  are  com- 
bined. Since  the  time  of  Sigismund  I.,  the  position 
of  the  Jews  in  Lithuania  and  Poland  had  been  fav- 
orable. It  is  regarded  as  their  golden  period  in 
Poland.  In  general,  Polish  Jews  had  always  been 
more  favorably  situated  than  their  brethren  in  faith 
in  other  countries.  At  the  very  beginning  of  Pol- 
ish history,  a  legend,  similar  to  that  attached  to  Saul 
WahPs  name,  sprang  up.  After  the  death  of  Popiel, 
an  assembly  met  at  Kruszwica  to  fill  the  vacant 
throne.  No  agreement  could  be  reached,  and  the 
resolution  was  adopted  to  hail  as  king  the  first  per- 
son to  enter  the  town  the  next  morning.  The  guard 
stationed  at  the  gate  accordingly  brought  before  the 
assembly  the  poor  Jew  Abraham,  with  the  surname 
Powdermaker  (Prochownifc),  which  he  had  received 
from  his  business,  the  importing  of  powder.  He 
was  welcomed  with  loud  rejoicing,  and  appointed 
king.  But  he  refused  the  crown,  and  pressed  to 
accept  it,  finally  asked  for  a  night's  delay  to  con- 
sider the  proposal.  Two  days  and  two  nights 
passed,  still  the  Jew  did  not  come  forth  from  his 
room.  The  Poles  were  very  much  excited,  and  a 
peasant,  Piast  by  name,  raising  his  voice,  cried  out: 
"  No,  no,  this  will  .not  do !  The  land  cannot  be 
without  a  head,  and  as  Abraham  does  not  come  out, 
I  will  bring  him  out."  Swinging  his  axe,  he 


286  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

rushed  into  the  house,  and  led  the  trembling  Jew 
before  the  crowd.  With  ready  wit,  Abraham  said, 
"  Poles,  here  you  see  the  peasant  Piast,  he  is  the  one 
to  be  your  king.  He  is  sensible,  for  he  recognized 
that  a  land  may  not  be  without  a  king.  Besides, 
he  is  courageous;  he  disregarded  my  command  not 
to  enter  my  house.  Crown  him,  and  you  will  have 
reason  to  be  grateful  to  God  and  His  servant  Abra- 
ham ! "  So  Piast  was  proclaimed  king,  and  he  be- 
came the  ancestor  of  a  great  dynasty. 

It  is  difficult  to  discover  how  much  of  truth  is 
contained  in  this  legend  of  the  tenth  century.  That 
it  in  some  remote  way  rests  upon  historical  facts  is 
attested  by  the  existence  of  Polish  coins  bearing  the 
inscriptions:  "  Abraham  Dux"  and  "  Zevach  Abra- 
ham" ("Abraham  the  Prince"  and  "Abraham's 
Sacrifice").  Casimir  the  Great,  whose  liaison  with 
the  Jewess  Esterka  has  been  shown  by  modern  his- 
torians to  be  a  pure  fabrication,  confirmed  the  char- 
ter of  liberties  (privilegium  libertatis)  held  by  the 
Jews  of  Poland  from  early  times,  and  under  Sigis- 
mund  I.  they  prospered,  materially  and  intel- 
lectually, as  never  before.  Learning  flourished 
among  them,  especially  the  study  of  the  Talmud 
being  promoted  by  three  great  men,  Solomon 
Shachna,  Solomon  Luria,  and  Moses  Isserles. 

Henry  of  Anjou,  the  first  king  elected  by  the  Diet 
(1573),  owed  his  election  to  Solomon  Ashkenazi,  a 
Jewish  physician  and  diplomat,  who  ventured  to  re- 
mind the  king  of  his  services:  "To  me  more  than 
to  any  one  else  does  your  Majesty  owe  your  election. 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  28/ 

Whatever  was  done  here  at  the  Porte,  I  did,  al- 
though, I  believe,  M.  d'Acqs  takes  all  credit 
unto  himself."  This  same  diplomat,  together  with 
the  Jewish  prince  Joseph  Nasi  of  Naxos,  was 
chiefly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  election 
of 'Stephen  Bathori.  Simon  Giinsburg,  the  head  of 
the  Jewish  community  of  Posen,  had  a  voice  in  the 
king's  council,  and  Bona  Sforza,  the  Italian  princess 
on  the  Polish  throne,  was  in  the  habit  of  consulting 
with  clever  Jews.  The  papal  legate  Commendoni 
speaks  in  a  vexed  tone,  yet  admiringly,  of  the  bril- 
liant position  of  Polish  Jews,  of  their  extensive 
cattle-breeding  and  agricultural  interests,  of  their  su- 
periority to  Christians  as  artisans,  of  their  commer- 
cial enterprise,  leading  them  as  far  as  Dantzic  in  the 
north  and  Constantinople  in  the  south,  and  of  their 
possession  of  that  sovereign  means  which  overcomes 
ruler,  starost,  and  legate  alike.1 

These  are  the  circumstances  to  be  borne  in 
mind  in  examining  the  authenticity  of  the  legend 
about  the  king  of  a  night.  As  early  as  the  begin- 
ning of  his  century,  recent  historians  inform  us, 
three  Jews,  Abraham,  Michael,  and  Isaac  Josefowicz, 
rose  to  high  positions  in  Lithuania.  Abraham  was 
made  chief  rabbi  of  Lithuania,  his  residence  being 
fixed  at  Ostrog;  Isaac  became  starost  of  the  cities 
of  Smolensk  and  Minsk  (1506),  and  four  years  later, 
he  was  invested  with  the  governorship  of  Lithuania. 
He  always  kept  up  his  connection  with  his  brothers, 
protected  his  co-religionists,  and  appointed  Michael 

1  Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  IX.,  p.  480. 


288  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

chief  elder  of  the  Lithuanian  Jews.  On  taking 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Albert  of  Prussia,  he  was 
raised  to  the  rank  of  a  nobleman.  A  Jew  of  the 
sixteenth  century  a  nobleman!  Surely,  this  fact  is 
sufficiently  startling  to  serve  as  the  background  of 
a  legend.  We  have  every  circumstance  necessary: 
An  analogous  legend  in  the  early  history  of  Poland, 
the  favored  condition  of  the  Jews,  the  well-attested 
reality  of  Saul  Juditsch,  and  an  extraordinary  event, 
the  ennobling  of  a  Jew.  Saul  Wahl  probably  did 
not  reign — not  even  for  a  single  night — but  he  cer- 
tainly was  attached  to  the  person  of  the  king,  and 
later,  ignorant  of  grades  of  officials,  the  Jews  were 
prone  to  magnify  his  position.  Indeed,  the  abject 
misery  of  their  condition  in  the  seventeenth  century 
seems  better  calculated  to  explain  the  legend  than 
their  prosperity  in  the  fifteenth  and  the  sixteenth 
century.  Bogdan  Chmielnicki's  campaign  against 
the  rebellious  Cossacks  wrought  havoc  among  the 
Jews.  From  the  southern  part  of  the  Ukraine  to 
Lemberg,  the  road  was  strewn  with  the  corpses  of 
a  hundred  thousand  Jews.  The  sad  memory  of  a 
happy  past  is  the  fertile  soil  in  which  legends  thrive. 
It  is  altogether  likely  that  at  this  time  of  degrada- 
tion the  memory  of  Saul  Wahl,  redeemer  and  hero, 
was  first  celebrated,  and  the  report  of  his  coat  of 
arms  emblazoned  with  a  lion  clutching  a  scroll  of 
the  Law,  and  crowning  an  eagle,  of  his  golden 
chain,  of  his  privileges,  and  all  his  memorials,  spread 
from  house  to  house. 

Parallel  cases  of  legend-construction  readily  sug- 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  289 

gest  themselves.  In  our  own  time,  in  the  glare  of 
nineteenth  century  civilization,  legends  originate  in 
the  same  way.  Here  is  a  case  in  point:  In  1875,  the 
Anthropological  Society  of  Western  Prussia  insti- 
tuted a  series  of  investigations,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  complexion  and  the  color  of  the  hair  and  eyes  of 
the  children  at  the  public  schools  were  to  be  noted,  in 
order  to  determine  the  prevalence  of  certain  racial 
traits.  The  most  extravagant  rumors  circulated  in 
the  districts  of  Dantzic,  Thorn,  Kulm,  all  the  way  to 
Posen.  Parents,  seized  by  unreasoning  terror,  sent 
their  children,  in  great  numbers,  to  Russia.  One 
rumor  said  that  the  king  of  Prussia  had  lost  one 
thousand  blonde  children  to  the  sultan  over  a  game 
of  cards;  another,  that  the  Russian  government  had 
sold  sixty  thousand  pretty  girls  to  an  Arab  prince, 
and  to  save  them  from  the  sad  fate  conjectured 
to  be  in  store  for  them,  all  the  pretty  girls 
at  Dubna  were  straightway  married  off. — Similarly, 
primitive  man,  to  satisfy  his  intellectual  cravings, 
explained  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens,  the  earth, 
and  the  waters  by  legends  and  myths,  the  germs  of 
polytheistic  nature  religions.  In  our  case,  the  tissue 
of  facts  is  different,  the  process  the  same. 

But  legends  express  the  idealism  of  the  masses; 
they  are  the  highest  manifestations  of  spiritual  life. 
The  thinker's  flights  beyond  the  confines  of  reality, 
the  inventor's  gift  to  join  old  materials  in  new  com- 
binations, the  artist's  creative  impulse,  the  poet's  in- 
spiration, the  seer's  prophetic  vision — every  emana- 
tion from  man's  ideal  nature  clothes  itself  with 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 


sinews,  flesh,  and  skin,  and  lives  in  a  people's  le- 
gends, the  repositories  of  its  art,  poetry,  science,  and 
ethics. 

Legends  moreover  are  characteristic  of  a  people's 
culture.  As  a  child  delights  in  iridescent  soap- 
bubbles,  so  a  nation  revels  in  reminiscences. 
Though  poetry  lend  words,  painting  her  tints,  ar- 
chitecture a  rule,  sculpture  a  chisel,  music  her  tones, 
the  legend  itself  is  dead,  and  only  a  thorough  un- 
derstanding of  national  traits  enables  one  to  recog- 
nize its  ethical  bearings.  From  this  point  of  view, 
the  legend  of  the  Polish  king  of  a  night  is  an  im- 
portant historical  argument,  testifying  to  the  satis- 
factory condition  of  the  Jews  of  Poland  in  the  fif- 
teenth and  the  sixteenth  century.  The  simile  that  com- 
pares nations,  on  the  eve  of  a  great  revolution,  to  a 
seething  crater,  is  true  despite  its  triteness,  and  if  to 
any  nation,  is  applicable  to  the  Poland  of  before  and 
after  that  momentous  session  of  the  Diet.  Egotism, 
greed,  ambition,  vindictiveness,  and  envy  added  fuel 
to  fire,  and  hastened  destruction.  Jealousy  had 
planted  discord  between  two  families,  dividing  the 
state  into  hostile,  embittered  factions.  Morality 
was  undermined,  law  trodden  under  foot,  duty  neg- 
lected, justice  violated,  the  promptings  of  good 
sense  disregarded.  So  it  came  about  that  the  land 
was  flooded  by  ruin  as  by  a  mighty  stream,  which, 
a  tiny  spring  at  first,  gathers  strength  and  volume 
from  its  tributaries,  and  overflowing  its  bounds, 
rushes  over  blooming  meadows,  fields,  and  pastures, 
drawing  into  its  destructive  depths  the  peasant's 


A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND  2QI 

every  joy  and  hope.     That  is  the  soil  from  which  a  • 
legend  like  ours  sprouts  and  grows. 

This  legend  distinctly  conveys  an  ethical  lesson. 
The  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  their  ceaseless  wan- 
'derings  from  town  to  town,  from  country  to  coun- 
try, from  continent  to  continent,  have  lasted  two 
thousand  years,  and  how  many  dropped  by  the  way- 
side! Yet  they  never  parted  with  the  triple  crown 
placed  upon  their  heads  by  an  ancient  sage:  the 
crown  of  royalty,  the  crown  of  the  Law,  and  the 
crown  of  a  good  name.  Learning  and  fair  fame 
were  indisputably  theirs:  therefore,  the  first,  the 
royal  crown,  never  seemed  more  resplendent  than 
when  worn  in  exile.  The  glory  of  a  Jewish  king  of 
the  exile  seemed  to  herald  the  realization  of  the 
Messianic  ideal.  So  it  happens  that  many  a 
family  in  Poland,  England,  and  Germany,  still  cher- 
ishes the  memory  of  Rabbi  Saul  the  king,  and  that 
"  Malkohs "  everywhere  still  boast  of  royal  an- 
cestry. Rabbis,  learned  in  the  Law,  were  his 
descendants,  and  men  of  secular  fame,  Gabriel 
Riesser  among  them,  proudly  mention  their  connec- 
tion, however  distant,  with  Saul  Wahl.  The  mem- 
ory of  his  deeds  perpetuates  itself  in  respectable 
Jewish  homes,  where  grandams,  on  quiet  Sabbath 
afternoons,  tell  of  them,  as  they  show  in  confirma- 
tion the  seal  on  coins  to  an  awe-struck  progeny. 

Three  crowns  Israel  bore  upon  his  head.  If  the 
crown  of  royalty  is  legendary,  then  the  more  em- 
phatically have  the  other  two  an  historical  and  ethic- 
al value.  The  crown  of  royalty  has  slipped  from 


292  A    JEWISH    KING    IN    POLAND 

us,  but  the  crown  of  a  good  name  and  especially  the 
crown  of  the  Law  are  ours  to  keep  and  bequeath  to 
our  children  and  our  children's  children  unto  the 
latest  generation. 


JEWISH  SOCIETY  IN  THE  TIME  OF 
MENDELSSOHN 

On  an  October  day  in  1743,  in  the  third  year  of 
the  reign  of  Frederick  the  Great,  a  delicate  lad  of 
about  fourteen  begged  admittance  at  the  Rosenthal 
gate  of  Berlin,  the  only  gate  by  which  non-resident 
Jews  were  allowed  to  enter  the  capital.  To  the 
clerk's  question  about  his  business  in  the  city,  he 
briefly  replied:  "Study"  (Lernen).  The  boy  was 
Moses  Mendelssohn,  and  he  entered  the  city  poor 
and  friendless,  knowing  in  all  Berlin  but  one  per- 
son, his  former  teacher  Rabbi  David  Frankel. 
About  twenty  years  later,  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences  awarded  him  the  first  prize  for  his  essay 
on  the  question:  "Are  metaphysical  truths  sus- 
ceptible of  mathematical  demonstration  ? "  After 
another  period  of  twenty  years,  Mendelssohn  was 
dead,  and  his  memory  was  celebrated  as  that  of  a 
"  sage  like  Socrates,  the  greatest  philosophers  of  the 
day  exclaiming, '  There  is  but  one  Mendelssohn!'  " 

The  Jewish  Renaissance  of  a  little  more  than  a 
century  ago  presents  the  whole  historic  course  of 
Judaism.  Never  had  the  condition  of  the  Jews  been 
more  abject  than  at  the  time  of  Mendelssohn's  ap- 
pearance on  the  scene.  It  must  be  remembered 

293 


294  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

that  for  Jews  the  middle  ages  lasted  three  hundred 
years  after  all  other  nations  had  begun  to  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  the  modern  era.  Veritable  slaves,  de- 
generate in  language  and  habits,  purchasing  the 
right  to  live  by  a  tax  (Leibzoll),  in  many  cities  still 
wearing  a  yellow  badge,  timid,  embittered,  pale, 
eloquently  silent,  the  Jews  herded  in  their  Ghetto 
with  its  single  Jew-gate — they,  the  descendants  of 
the  Maccabees,  the  brethren  in  faith  of  proud  Span- 
ish grandees,  of  Andalusian  poets  and  philosophers. 
The  congregations  were  poor;  immigrant  Poles 
filled  the  offices  of  rabbis  and  teachers,  and  occupied 
themselves  solely  with  the  discussion  of  recondite 
problems.  The  evil  nonsense  of  the  Kabbalists  was 
actively  propagated  by  the  Sabbatians,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  mystical  CJiassidim  were  beginning 
to  perform  their  witches'  dance.  The  language 
commonly  used  was  the  Judendeutsch  (the  Jewish 
German  jargon)  which,  stripped  of  its  former  liter- 
ary dignity,  was  not  much  better  than  thieves'  slang. 
Of  such  pitiful  elements  the  life  of  the  Jews  was 
made  up  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Suddenly  there  burst  upon  them  the  great, 
overwhelming  Renaissance!  It  seemed  as  though 
Ezekiel's  vision  were  about  to  be  fulfilled  \  "  The 
hand  of  the  Lord  was  upon  me,  and  carried  me  out 
in  the  spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  set  me  down  in  the 
midst  of  the  valley  which  was  full  of  bones  . . .  there 
were  very  many  in  the  open  valley;  and,  lo,  they 

1  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  i-u. 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  295 

were  very  dry.  And  he  said  unto  me,  Son  of  man, 
can  these  bones  live?  And  I  answered,  O  Lord 
God,  thou  knowest.  Again  he  said  unto  me, 
Prophesy  upon  these  bones,  and  say  unto  them,  O 
ye  dry  bones,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  God  unto  these  bones;  Behold,  I  will 
cause  breath  to  enter  into  you,  and  ye  shall  live .  . . 
and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord.  So  I 
prophesied  as  I  was  commanded:  and  as  I  prophe- 
sied, there  was  a  noise,  and  behold  a  shaking,  and 
the  bones  came  together,  bone  to  his  bone  .  .  .  the 
•sinews  and  the  flesh  came  up  upon  them,  and  the 
skin  covered  them  above:  but  there  was  no  breath  in 
them.  Then  said  he  unto  me,  Prophesy  unto  the 
wind,  prophesy,  son  of  man,  and  say  to  the  wind, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  God;  Come  from  the  four 
winds,  O  breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  that 
they  may  live.  So  I  prophesied  as  he  commanded 
me,  and  the  breath  came  into  them,  and  they  lived, 
and  stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  exceeding  great 
army.  Then  he  said  unto  me,  Son  of  man,  these 
bones  are  the  whole  house  of  Israel." 

Is  this  not  a  description  of  Israel's  history  in  mod- 
ern days?  Old  Judaism,  seeing  the  marvels  of  the 
Renaissance,  might  well  exclaim :  "  Who  hath  be- 
gotten me  these?"  and  many  a  pious  mind  must 
have  reverted  to  the  ancient  words  of  consolation: 
"  I  remember  unto  thee  the  kindness  of  thy  youth, 
the  love  of  thy  espousals,  thy  going  after  me  in  the 
wilderness,  through  a  land  that  is  not  sown." 

In  the  face  of  so  radical  a  transformation,  Herder, 


296  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

poet  and  thinker,  reached  the  natural  conclusion 
that  "such  occurrences,  such  a  history  with  all  its 
concomitant  and  dependent  circumstances,  in  brief, 
such  a  nation  cannot  be  a  lying  invention.  Its  de- 
velopment is  the  greatest  poem  of  all  times,  and  still 
unfinished,  will  probably  continue  until  every  possi- 
bility hidden  in  the  soul  life  of  humanity  shall  have 
obtained  expression."1 

An  unparalleled  revival  had  .begun;  and  in  Ger- 
many, in  which  it  made  itself  felt  as  an  effect  of  the 
French  Revolution,  it  is  coupled  first  and  foremost 
with  the  name  of  Moses  Mendelssohn. 

Society  as  conceived  in  these  modern  days  is 
based  upon  men's  relations  to  their  families,  their 
disciples,  and  their  friends.  They  are  the  three  ele- 
ments that  determine  a  man's  usefulness  as  a  social 
factor.  Our  first  interest,  then,  is  to  know  Men- 
delssohn in  his  family.2  Many  years  were  destined 
to  elapse,  after  his  coming  to  Berlin,  before  he  wa? 
to  win  a  position  of  dignity.  When,  a  single  ducat 
in  his  pocket,  he  first  reached  Berlin,  the  reader 
remembers,  he  was  a  pale-faced,  fragile  boy.  A 
contemporary  of  his  relates:  '"In  1746  I  came  to 
Berlin,  a  penniless  little  chap  of  fourteen,  and  in  the 
Jewish  school  I  met  Moses  Mendelssohn.  He  grew 
fond  of  me,  taught  me  reading  and  writing,  and 
often  shared  his  scanty  meals  with  me.  I  tried  to 
show  my  gratitude  by  doing  him  any  small  service 

'J.  G.  Herder. 

2M.    Kayserling  :     Moses  Mendels'sohn,   and  L.   Geiger,   Ge- 
tchichte  der  Juden  in  Berlin,  II. 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 


in  my  power.  Once  he  told  me  to  fetch  him  a  Ger- 
man book  from  some  place  or  other.  Returning 
with  the  book  in  hand,  I  was  met  by  one  of  the 
trustees  of  the  Jewish  poor  fund.  He  accosted  me, 
not  very  gently,  with,  i  What  have  you  there? 
I  venture  to  say  a  German  book!'  Snatching  it 
from  me,  and  dragging  me  to  the  magistrate's,  lie 
gave  orders  to  expel  me  from  the  city.  Mendels- 
sohn, learning  my  fate,  did  everything  possible  to 
bring  about  my  return;  but  his  efforts  were  of  no 
avail."  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  it  was  the 
grandfather  of  Herr  von  Bleichroder  who  had  to 
submit  to  so  relentless  a  fate. 

German  language  and  German  writing  Mendels- 
sohn acquired  by  his  unaided  efforts.  With  the 
desultory  assistance  of  a  Dr.  Kisch,  a  Jewish  physi- 
cian, he  learnt  Latin  from  a  book  picked  up  at  a 
second-hand  book  stall.  General  culture  was  at  that 
time  an  unknown  quantity  in  the  possibilities  of 
Berlin  Jewish  life.  The  schoolmasters,  who  were 
not  permitted  to  stay  in  the  city  more  than  three 
years,  were  for  the  most  part  Poles.  One  Pole, 
Israel  Moses,  a  fine  thinker  and  mathematician, 
banished  from  his  native  town,  Samosz,  on  account 
of  his  devotion  to  secular  studies,  lived  with  Aaron 
Gumpertz,  the  only  one  of  the  famous  family  of 
court-Jews  who  had  elected  a  better  lot.  From  the 
latter,  Mendelssohn  imbibed  a  taste  for  the  sciences, 
and  to  him  he  owed  some  direction  in  his  studies; 
while  in  mathematics  he  was  instructed  by  Israel 
Samosz,  at  the  time  when  the  latter,  busily  engaged 


298  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

with  his  great  commentary  on  Yehuda  Halevi's 
Al-Chazari,  was  living  at  the  house  of  the  Itzig 
family,  on  the  Burgstrasse,  on  the  very  spot 
where  the  talented  architect  Hitzig,  the  grandson  of 
Mendelssohn's  contemporary,  built  the  magnificent 
Exchange.  To  enable  himself  to  buy  books,  Men- 
delssohn had  to  deny  himself  food.  As  soon  as  he 
had  hoarded  a  few  groschen,  he  stealthily  slunk  to 
a  dealer  in  second-hand  books.  In  this  way  he 
managed  to  possess  himself  of  a  Latin  grammar 
and  a  wretched  lexicon.  Difficulties  did  not  exist 
for  him;  they  vanished  before  his  industry  and  per- 
severance. In  a  short  time  he  knew  far  more  than 
Gumpertz  himself,  who  has  become  famous  through 
his  entreaty  to  Magister  Gottsched  at  Leipsic, 
whilom  absolute  monarch  in  German  literature :  "  I 
would  most  respectfully  supplicate  that  it  may  please 
your  worshipful  Highness  to  permit  me  to  repair  to 
Leipsic  to  pasture  on  the  meadows  of  learning  un- 
der your  Excellency's  protecting  wing." 

After  seven  years  of  struggle  and  privation,  Moses 
Mendelssohn  became  tutor  at  the  house  of  Isaac 
Bernhard,  a  silk  manufacturer,  and  now  began  bet- 
ter times.  In  spite  of  faithful  performance  of 
duties,  he  found  leisure  to  acquire  a  considerable 
stock  of  learning.  He  began  to  frequent  social 
gatherings,  his  friend  Dr.  Gumpertz  introducing 
him  to  people .  of  culture,  among  others  to  some 
philosophers,  members  of  the  Berlin  Academy. 
What  smoothed  the  way  for  him  more  than  his  ster- 
ling character  and  his  fine  intellect  was  his  good 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  299 

chess-playing.  The  Jews  have  always  been  cele- 
brated as  chess-players,  and  since  the  twelfth  century 
a  literature  in  Hebrew  prose  and  verse  has  grown 
up  about  the  game.  Mendelssohn  in  this  re- 
spect, too,  was  the  heir  of  the  peculiar  gifts  of  his 
race. 

In  a  little  room  two  flights  up  in  a  house  next 
to  the  Nicolai  churchyard  lived  one  of  the  ac- 
quaintances made  by  Mendelssohn  through  Dr. 
Gumpertz,  a  young  newspaper  writer — Gotthold 
Ephraim  Lessing.  Lessing  was  ,at  once  strongly 
attracted  by  the  young  man's  keen,  untrammelled 
mind.  He  foresaw  that  Mendelssohn  would  "  be- 
come an  honor  to  his  nation,  provided  his  fellow- 
believers  permit  him  to  reach  his  intellectual  ma- 
turity. His  honesty  and  his  philosophic  bent  make 
me  see  in  him  a  second  Spinoza,  equal  to  the  first 
in  all  but  his  errors."1  Through  Lessing,  Mendels- 
sohn formed  the  acquaintance  of  Nicolai,  and  as 
they  were  close  neighbors,  their  friendship  devel- 
oped into  intimacy.  Nicolai  induced  him  to  take  up 
the  study  of  Greek,  and  old  Rector  Damm  taught 
him. 

At  this  time  (1755),  the  first  coffee-house  for  the 
use  of  an  association  of  about  one  hundred  mem- 
bers, chiefly  philosophers,  mathematicians,  physi- 
cians, and  booksellers,  was  opened  in  Berlin.  Men- 
delssohn, too,  was  admitted,  making  his  true  en- 
trance into  society,  and  forming  many  attachments. 
One  evening  it  was  proposed  at  the  club  that  each 

lLessing,  Gesammeltc  Schriften,  Vol.  XII.,  p.  247. 


300  THE  TIME  OF  MENDELSSOHN 

of  the  members  describe  his  own  defects  in  verse; 
whereupon  Mendelssohn,  who  stuttered  and  was 
slightly  hunchbacked,  wrote: 

"Great  you  call  Demosthenes, 
Stutt'ring  orator  of  Greece  ; 
Hunchbacked  ALsop  you  deem  wise ; — 
In  your  circle,  I  surmise, 
I  am  doubly  wise  and  great. 
What  in  each  was  separate 
You  in  me  united  find, — 
Hump  and  heavy  tongue  combined." 

Meanwhile  his  worldly  affairs  prospered;  he  had 
become  bookkeeper  in  Bernhard's  business.  His 
biographer  Kayserling  tells  us  that  at  this  period  he 
was  in  a  fair  way  to  develop  into  "a  true  bel 
esprit";  he  took  lessons  on  the  piano,  went  to  the 
theatre  and  to  concerts,  and  wrote  poems.  During 
the  winter  he  was  at  his  desk  at  the  office  from 
eight  in  the  morning  until  nine  in  the  evening.  In 
the  summer  of  1756,  his  work  was  lightened;  after 
two  in  the  afternoon  he  was  his  own  master.  The 
following  year  finds  him  comfortably  established  in 
a  house  of  his  own  with  a  garden,  in  which  he 
could  be  found  every  evening  at  six  o'clock,  Less- 
ing  and  Nicolai  often  joining  him.  Besides,  he  had 
laid  by  a  little  sum,  which  enabled  him  to  help  his 
friends,  especially  Lessing,  out  of  financial  embar- 
rassments. Business  cares  did,  indeed,  bear  heavily 
upon  him,  and  his  complaints  are  truly  touching: 
"  Like  a  beast  of  burden  laden  down,  I  crawl 
through  life,  self-love  unfortunately  whispering  into 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  30! 

my  ear  that  nature  had  perhaps  mapped  out  a  poet's 
career  for  me.  But  what  can  we  do,  my  friends? 
Let  us  pity  one  another,  and  be  content.  So  long 
as  love  for  science  is  not  stifled  within  us,  we  may 
hope  on."  Surely,  his  love  for  learning  never  dim- 
inished. On  the  contrary,  his  zeal  for  philosophic 
studies  grew,  and  with  it  his  reputation  in  the 
learned  world  of  Berlin.  The  Jewish  thinker  finally 
attracted  the  notice  of  Frederick  the  Great,  whose 
poems  he  had  had  the  temerity  to  criticise  ad- 
versely in  the  "  Letters  on  Literature "  (Litteratur- 
briefe).  He  says  in  that  famous  criticism:1  "What 
a  loss  it  has  been  for  our  mother-tongue  that  this 
prince  has  given  more  time  and  effort  to  the  French 
language.  We  should  otherwise  possess  a  treasure 
which  would  arouse  the  envy  of  our  neighbors." 
A  certain  Herr  von  Justi,  who  had  also  incurred 
the  unfavorable  notice  of  the  Litteraturbriefe,  used 
this  review  to  revenge  himself  o<n  Mendelssohn.  He 
wrote  to  the  Prussian  state-councillor:  "A  miser- 
able publication  appears  in  Berlin,  letters  on  recent 
literature,  in  which  a  Jew,  criticising  court-preacher 
Cramer,  uses  irreverent  language  in  reference  to 
Christianity,  and  in  a  bold  review  of  Poesies  diver ses, 
fails  to  pay  the  proper  respect  to  his  Majesty's  sa- 
cred person."  Soon  an  interdict  was  issued  against 
the  Litteraturbriefe,  and  Mendelssohn  was  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  attorney  general  Von 
Uhden.  Nicolai  has  given  us  an  account  of  the 
interview  between  the  high  and  mighty  officer  of 
the  state  and  the  poor  Jewish  philosopher: 
1  Mendelssohn,  Gesammelte  Schriften,  Vol.  IV2,  6Bjf. 


3O2  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

Attorney  General :  "  Look  here !  How  can  you 
venture  to  write  against  Christians?  " 

Mendelssohn:  "When  I  bowl  with  Christians,  I 
throw  down  all  the  pins  whenever  I  can." 

Attorney  General:  "  Do  you  dare  mock  at  me? 
Do  you  know  to  whom  you  are  speaking1?" 

Mendelssohn :  "  Oh  yes.  I  am  in  the  presence 
of  privy  councillor  and  attorney  general  Von 
Uhden,  a  just  man." 

Attorney  General :  "  I  ask  again :  What  right  have 
you  to  write  against  a  Christian,  a  court-preacher  at 
that?" 

Mendelssohn:  "And  I  must  repeat  truly  without 
mockery,  that  when  I  play  at  nine-pins  with  a  Chris- 
tian, even  though  he  be  a  court-preacher,  I  throw 
down  all  the  pins,  if  I  can.  Bowling  is  a  recreation 
for  my  body,  writing  for  my  mind.  Writers  do  as 
well  as  they  can."  % 

In  this  strain  the  conversation  continued  for  some 
time.  Another  version  of  the  affair  is  that  Men- 
delssohn was  ordered  to  appear  before  the  king  at 
Sanssouci  on  a  certain  Saturday.  When  he  pre- 
sented himself  at  the  gate  of  the  palace,  the  officer 
in  charge  asked  him  how  he  happened  to  have  been 
honored  with  an  invitation  to  come  to  court.  Men- 
delssohn said:  "Oh,  I  am  a  juggler!"  In  point  of 
fact,  Frederick  read  the  objectionable  review  some 
time  later,  Venino  translating  it  into  French  for 
him.  It  was  probably  in  consequence  of  this  vexa- 
tious occurrence  that  Mendelssohn  made  application 
for  the  privilege  to  be  considered  a  Schutzjude,  that 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  303 

is,  a  Jew  with  rights  of  residence.  The  Marquis 
d'Argens  who  lived  with  the  king  at  Potsdam  in 
the  capacity  of  his  Majesty's  philosopher-com- 
panion, earnestly  supported  his  petition :  "  Un  philo- 
sophe mauvais  catholique  supplie  un  philosophe 
mauvais  protestant  de  donner  le  privilege  a  un 
philosophe  mauvais  juif.  II  y  a  trop  de  philosophic 
dans  tout  ceci  que  la  raison  ne  soit  pas  du  cote  de  la 
demanded  The  privilege  was  accorded  to  Mendels- 
sohn on  November  26,  1763. 

Being  a  Schutzjude,  he  could  entertain  the  idea 
of  marriage.  Everybody  is  familiar  with  the  pretty 
anecdote  charmingly  told  by  Berthold  Auerbach. 
Mendelssohn's  was  a  love-match.  In  April  1760, 
he  undertook  a  trip  to  Hamburg,  and  there  became 
affianced  to  a  "  blue-eyed  maiden,"  Fromet  Gugen- 
heim.  The  story  goes  that  the  girl  shrank  back 
startled  at  Mendelssohn's  proposal  of  marriage.  She 
asked  him :  "  Do  you  believe  that  matches  are  made 
in  heaven?"  "  Most  assuredly,"  answered  Mendels- 
sohn; "indeed,  a  singular  thing  happened  in  my 
own  case.  You  know  that,  according  to  a  Talmud 
legend,  at  the  birth  of  a  child,  the  announcement  is 
made  in  heaven:  So  and  so  shall  marry  so  and  so. 
When  I  was  born,  my  future  wife's  name  was  called 
out,  and  I  was  told  that  she  would  unfortunately  be 
terribly  humpbacked.  <  Dear  Lord,'  said  I,  '  a  de- 
formed girl  easily  gets  embittered  and  hardened. 
A  girl  ought  to  be  beautiful.  Dear  Lord!  Give  me 
the  hump,  and  let  the  girl  be  pretty,  graceful,  pleas- 
ing to  the  eye."- 


304  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

His  engagement  lasted  a  whole  year.  He  was 
naturally  desirous  to  improve  his  worldly  position; 
but  never  did  it  occur  to  him  to  do  so  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  immaculate  character.  Veitel  Ephraim 
and  his  associates,  employed  by  Frederick  the 
Great  to  debase  the  coin  of  Prussia,  made  him  bril- 
liant offers  in  the  hope  of  gaining  him  as  their  part- 
ner. He  could  not  be  tempted,  and  entered  into  a 
binding  engagement  with  Bernhard.  His  married 
life  was  happy,  he  was  sincerely  in  love  with  his 
wife,  and  she  became  his  faithful,  devoted  compan- 
ion. 

Six  children  were  the  offspring  of  their  union: 
Abraham,  Joseph,  Nathan,  Dorothea,  Henriette,  and 
Recha.  In  Moses  Mendelssohn's  house,  the  one  in 
which  these  children  grew  up,p  the  barriers  between 
the  learned  world  and  Berlin  general  society  first 
fell.  It  was  the  rallying  place  of  all  seeking  en- 
lightenment, of  all  doing  battle  in  the  cause  of  en- 
lightenment. The  rearing  of  his  children  was  a 
source  of  great  anxiety  to  Mendelssohn,  whose 
means  were  limited.  One  day,  shortly  before  his 
death,  Mendelssohn,  walking  up  and  down  before 
his  house  in  Spandauer  street,  absorbed  in  medita- 
tion, was  met  by  an  acquaintance,  who  asked  him: 
u  My  dear  Mr.  Mendelssohn,  what  is  the  matter 
with  you?  You  look  so  troubled."  "And  so  I 
am,"  he  replied ;  "  I  am  thinking  what  my  children's 
fate  will  be,  when  I  am  gone." 

Moses  Mendelssohn  was  wholly  a  son  of  his  age, 
which  perhaps  explains  the  charm  of  his  personality. 


THE   TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  305 

His  faults  as  well  as  his  fine  traits  must  be  accounted 
for  by  the  peculiarities  of  his  generation.  From 
this  point  of  view,  we  can  understand  his  desire  to 
have  his  daughters  make  a  wealthy  match.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  could  not  have  known,  and  if  he  had 
known,  he  could  not  have  understood,  that  his 
daughters,  touched  by  the  breath  of  a  later  time, 
had  advanced  far  beyond  his  position.  The  Jews 
of  that  day,  particularly  Jewish  women,  were  seized 
by  a  mighty  longing  for  knowledge  and  culture. 
They  studied  French,  read  Voltaire,  and  drew  inspi- 
ration from  the  works  of  the  English  freethinkers. 
One  of  those  women  says :  "  We  all  would  have  been 
pleased  to  be  heroines  of  romance;  there  was  not 
one  of  us  who  did  not  rave  over  some  hero  or  hero- 
ine of  fiction."  At  the  head  of  this  band  of  enthu- 
siasts stood  Dorothea  Mendelssohn,  brilliant,  capti- 
vating, and  gifted  with  a  vivid  imagination.  She 
was  the  leader,  the  animating  spirit  of  her  com- 
panions. To  the  reading-club  organized  by  her 
efforts  all  the  restless  minds  belonged.  In  the  pri- 
vate theatricals  at  the  houses  of  rich  Jews,  she  filled 
the  principal  roles ;  and  the  mornings  after  her  social 
triumphs  found  her  a  most  attentive  listener  to  her 
father,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  holding  lectures  for 
her  and  her  brother  Joseph,  afterward  published 
under  the  name  Morgenstundcn.  And  this  was  the 
girl  whom  her  father  wished  to  see  married  at  six- 
teen. When  a  rich  Vienna  banker  was  proposed  as 
a  suitable  match,  he  said,  "Ah!  a  man  like  Eskeles 
would  greatly  please  my  pride!"  Dorothea  did 


306  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

marry  Simon  Veit,  a  banker,  a  worthy  man,  who 
in  no  way  could  satisfy  the  demands  of  her  impetu- 
ous nature.  Yet  her  father  believed  her  to  be  a 
happy  wife.  In  her  thirtieth  year  she  made  the 
acquaintance,  at  the  house  of  her  friend  Henriette 
Herz,  of  a  young  man,  five  years  her  junior,  who 
was  destined  to  change  the  course  of  her  whole  life. 
This  wras  Friedrich  von  Schlegel,  the  chief  of  the 
romantic  movement.  Dorothea  Veit,  not  beautiful, 
fascinated  him  by  her  brilliant  wit.  Under  Schleier- 
macher's  encouragement,  the  relation  between  the 
two  quickly  assumed  a  serious  aspect  But  it  was 
not  until  long  after  her  father's  death  that  Dorothea 
abandoned  her  husband  and  children,  and  became 
SchlegePs  life-companion,  first  his  mistress,  later  his 
wife.  As  Gutzkow  justly  says,  his  novel  "  Lucinde  " 
describes  the  relation  in  which  Schlegel  "permitted 
himself  to  be  discovered.  Love  for  Schlegel  it  was 
that  consumed  her,  and  led  her  to  share  with  him  a 
thousand  follies — Catholicism,  Brahmin  theosophy, 
absolutism,  and  the  Christian  asceticism  of  which 
she  was  a  devotee  at  the  time  of  her  death."  Neither 
distress,  nor  misery,  nor  care,  nor  sorrow  could 
alienate  her  affections.  Finally,  she  became  a 
bigoted  Catholic,  and  in  Vienna,  their  last  residence, 
the  daughter  of  Moses  Mendelssohn  was  seen, 
a  lighted  taper  in  her  hand,  one  of  a  Catholic  pro- 
cession w^ending  its  way  to  St.  Stephen's  Cathedral. 
The  other  daughter  had  a  similar  career.  Hen- 
riette Mendelssohn  filled  a  position  as  governess 
first  in  Vienna,  then  in  Paris.  In  the  latter  city,  her 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  307 

home  was  the  meeting-place  of  the  most  brilliant 
men  and  women.  She,  too,  denied  her  father  and 
her  faith.  Recha,  the  youngest  daughter,  was  the 
unhappy  wife  of  a  merchant  of  Strelitz.  Later  on 
she  supported  herself  by  keeping  a  boarding-school 
at  Altona.  Nathan,  the  youngest  son,  was  a  mech- 
anician; Abraham,  the  second,  the  father  of  the 
famous  composer,  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 
established  with  the  oldest,  Joseph,  a  still  flourish- 
ing banking-business.  Abraham's  children  and 
grandchildren  all  became  converts  to  Christianity, 
but  Moses  and  Fromet  died  before  their  defection 
from  the  old  faith.  Fromet  lived  to  see  the  develop- 
ment of  the  passion  for  music  which  became  hered- 
itary in  the  family.  It  is  said  that  when,  at  the  time 
of  the  popularity  of  Schulz's  "  Ath'alia,"  one  of  the 
choruses,  with  the  refrain  tout  I'univers,  was  much 
sung  by  her  children,  the  old  lady  cried  out  irritably, 
"Wie  mies  ist  mir  vor  tout  funivers"  ("  How  sick 
I  am  of  'all  the  world !'  ").* 

To  say  apologetically  that  the  circumstances  of 
the  times  produced  such  feeling  and  action  may  be 
a  partial  defense  of  these  women,  but  it  is  not  the 
truth.  Henriette  Mendelssohn's  will  is  a  character- 
istic document  The  introduction  runs  thus :  "  In 
these  the  last  words  I  address  to  my  dear  relatives, 
I  express  my  gratitude  for  all  their  help  and  affec- 
tion, and  also  that  they  in  no  wise  hindered  me  in 
the  practice  of  my  religion.  I  have  only  myself  to 
blame  if  the  Lord  God  did  not  deem  me  worthy  to 
1  Hensel,  Die  Familie  Mendelssohn,  Vol.  I.,  p.  86. 


3O8  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

be  the  instrument  for  the  conversion  of  all  my 
brothers  and  sisters  to  the  Catholic  Church,  the  only 
one  endowed  with  saving  grace.  May  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  grant  my  prayer,  and  bless  them  all 
with  the  light  of  His  countenance.  Amen !  "  Such 
were  the  sentiments  of  Moses  Mendelssohn's  daugh- 
ters! 

The  sons  inclined  towards  Protestantism.  Abra- 
ham is  reported  to  have  said  that  at  first  he  was 
known  as  the  son  of  his  father,  and  later  as  the  father 
of  his  son.  His  wife  was  Leah  Salomon,  the  sister 
of  Salomon  Bartholdy,  afterwards  councillor  of  lega- 
tion. His  surname  was  really  only  Salomon;  Bar- 
tholdy he  had  assumed  from  the  former  owner  of  a 
garden  in  Kopenikerstrasse  on  the  Spree  which  he 
had  bought.  To  him  chiefly  the  formal  accept- 
ance of  Christianity  by  Abraham's  family  was  due. 
When  Abraham  hesitated  about  having  his  children 
baptized,  Bartholdy  wrote:  "You  say  that  you  owe 
it  to  your  father's  memory  (not  to  abandon  Juda- 
ism). Do  you  think  that  you  are  committing  a 
wrong  in  giving  your  children  a  religion  which  you 
and  they  consider  the  better?  In  fact,  you  would  be 
paying  a  tribute  to  your  father's  efforts  in  behalf  of 
true  enlightenment,  and  he  would  have  acted  for 
your  children  as  you  have  acted  for  them,  perhaps 
for  himself  as  I  am  acting  for  myself."  This  cer- 
tainly is  the  climax  of  frivolity !  So  it  happened  that 
one  of  Mendelssohn's  grandsons,  Philip  Veit,  be- 
came a  renowned  Catholic  church  painter,  and 
another,  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  Protestant  composers. 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  309 

After  his  family,  we  are  interested  in  the  philoso- 
pher's disciples.  They  are  men  of  a  type  not  better, 
but  different.  What  in  his  children  sprang  from 
impulsiveness  and  conviction,  was  due  to  levity  and 
imitativeness  in  his  followers.  Mendelssohn's  co- 
workers  and  successors  formed  the  school  of  Biur- 
istsy  that  is,  expounders.  In  his  commentary  on  the 
Pentateuch  he  was  helped  by  Solomon  Dubno, 
Herz  Homberg,  and  Hartwig  Wessely.  Solomon 
Dubno,  the  tutor  of  Mendelssohn's  children,  was  a 
learned  Pole,  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  the  work 
on  the  Pentateuch.  His  literary  vanity  having  been 
wounded,  he  secretly  left  Mendelssohn's  house,  and 
could  not  be  induced  to  renew  his  interest  in  the 
undertaking.  Herz  Homberg,  an  Austrian,  took 
his  place  as  tutor.  When  the  children  were  grown, 
he  went  to  Vienna,  and  there  was  made  imperial 
councillor,  charged  with  the  superintendence  of  the 
Jewish  schools  of  Galicia.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  he  used  efforts  to  further  the  study  of  the 
Talmud  among  Jews.  From  letters  recently  pub- 
lished, written  by  and  about  him,  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that  he  was  a  common  informer.  Mendels- 
sohn, of  course,  was  not  aware  of  his  true  character. 
The  noblest  of  all  was  Naphtali  Hartwig  Wessely, 
a  poet,  a  pure  man,  a  sincere  lover  of  mankind. 

The  other  prominent  members  of  Mendelssohn's 
circle  were:  Isaac  Euchel,  the  "restorer  of  Hebrew 
prose,"  as  he  has  been  called,  whose  chief  purpose 
was  the  reform  of  the  Jewish  order  of  service  and 
Jewish  pedagogic  methods;  Solomon  Maimon,  a 


3IO  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

wild  fellow,  who  in  his  autobiography  tells  his  own 
misdeeds,  by  many  of  which  Mendelssohn  was 
caused  annoyance;  Lazarus  ben  David,  a  modern 
Diogenes,  the  apostle  of  Kantism;  and,  above  all, 
David  Friedlander,  an  enthusiastic  herald  of  the 
new  era,  a  zealous  champion  of  modern  culture,  a 
pure,  serious  character  with  high  ethical  ideals, 
whose  aims,  inspired  though  they  were  by  most 
exalted  intentions,  far  overstepped  the  bounds  set  to 
him  as  a  Jew  and  the  disciple  of  Mendelssohn. 
Kant's  philosophy  found  many  ardent  adherents 
among  the  Jews  at  that  time.  Beside  the  old  there 
was  growing  up  a  new  generation  which,  having  no 
obstructions  placed  in  its  path  after  Mendelssohn's 
death,  aggressively  asserted  its  principles. 

The  first  Jew  after  Mendelssohn  to  occupy  a  posi- 
tion of  prominence  in  the  social  world  of  Berlin  was 
his  pupil  Marcus  Herz,  with  the  title  professor  and 
aulic  councillor,  "praised  as  a  physician,  esteemed 
as  a  philosopher,  and  extolled  as  a  prodigy  in  the 
natural  sciences.  His  lectures  on  physics,  delivered 
in  his  own  house,  were  attended  by  members  of  the 
highest  aristocracy,  even  by  royal  personages." 

In  circles  like  his,  the  equalization  of  the  Jews 
with  the  other  citizens  was  animatedly  discussed,  by 
partisans  and  opponents.  In  the  theatre-going  pub- 
lic, a  respectable  minority,  having  once  seen  "  Nathan 
the  Wise  "  enacted,  protested  against  the  appearance 
upon  the  stage  of  the  trade-Jew,  speaking  the  sing- 
song, drawling  German  vulgarly  supposed  to  be  pe- 
culiar to  all  Jews  (Mauschclii).  As  early  as  1771, 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  3!  I 

Marcus  Herz  had  entered  a  vigorous  protest  against 
mauscheln,  and  at  the  first  performance  of  "  The 
Merchant  of  Venice"  on  August  16,  1788,  the  fam- 
ous actor  Fleck  declaimed  a  prologue,  composed 
by  Ramler,  in  which  he  disavowed  any  intention 
to  "  sow  hatred  against  the  Jews,  the  brethren  in 
faith  of  wise  Mendelssohn,"  and  asserted  the  sole 
purpose  of  the  drama  to  be  the  combating  of  folly 
and  vice  wherever  they  appear. 

Marcus  Herz's  wife  was  Henriette  Herz,  and  in 
1790,  when  Alexander  and  Wilhelm  Humboldt  first 
came  to  her  house,  the  real  history  of  the  Berlin 
salon  begins.  The  Humboldts'  acquaintance  with 
the  Herz  family  dates  from  the  visit  of  state  coun- 
cillor Kunth,  the  tutor  of  the  Humboldt  brothers, 
to  Marcus  Herz  to  advise  with  him  about  setting  up 
a  lightning-rod,  an  extraordinary  novelty  at  the 
time,  on  the  castle  at  Tegel.  Shortly  afterward, 
Kunth  introduced  his  two  pupils  to  Herz  and  his 
wife.  So  the  Berlin  salon  owed  its  origin  to  a 
lightning-rod;  indeed,  it  may  itself  be  called  an 
electrical  conductor  for  all  the  spiritual  forces,  re- 
cently brought  into  play,  and  still  struggling  to 
manifest  their  undeveloped  strength.  Up  to  that 
time  there  had  been  nothing  like  society  in  the  city 
of  intelligence.  Of  course  there  was  no  dearth  of 
scholars  and  clever,  brilliant  people,  but  insuperable 
obstacles  seemed  to  prevent  their  social  contact  with 
one  another.  Outside  of  Moses  Mendelssohn's 
house,  until  the  end  of  the  eighties  the  only  rendez- 
vous of  wits,  scholars,  and  literary  men,  the  prefer- 


312  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

ence  was  for  magnificent  banquets  and  noisy  ca- 
rousals, each  rank  entertaining  its  own  members. 
In  the  middle  class,  the  burghers,  the  social  instinct 
had  not  awakened  at  all.  Alexander  Humboldt  sig- 
nificantly dated  his  first  letter  to  Henriette  Herz 
from  Schloss  Ldngeweile.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  desire  for  spiritual  sympathy  led  to  the  formation 
of  reading-clubs  and  conversazioni.  These  were  the 
elements  that  finally  produced  Berlin  society. 

The  prototype  of  the  German  salon  naturally  was 
the  salon  of  the  rococo  period.  Strangely  enough, 
Berlin  Jews,  disciples,  friends,  and  descendants  of 
Moses  Mendelssohn,  were  the  transplanters  of  the 
foreign  product  to  German  soil.  Untrammelled  as 
they  were  in  this 'respect  by  traditions,  they  heark- 
ened eagerly  to  the  new  dispensation  issuing  from 
Weimar,  and  they  were  in  no  way  hampered  in  the 
choice  of  their  hero-guides  to  Olympus.  Berlin 
irony,  French  sparkle,  and  Jewish  wit  moulded  the 
social  forms  which  thereafter  were  to  be  characteris- 
tic of  society  at  the  capital,  and  called  forth  pretty 
much  all  that  was  charming  in  the  society  and  pleas- 
ing in  the  light  literature  of  the  Berlin  of  the  day. 

To  judge  Henriette  Herz  justly  we  must  beware 
alike  of  the  extravagance  of  her  biographer  and  the 
malice  of  her  friend  Varnhagen  von  Ense;  the  for- 
mer extols  her  cleverness  to  the  skies,  the  other  de- 
grades her  to  the  level  of  the  commonplace.  The 
two  seem  equally  unreliable.  She  was  neither  ex- 
tremely witty  nor  extremely  cultured.  She  had  a 
singularly  clear  mind,  and  possessed  the  rare  faculty 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  313 

of  spreading  about  her  an  atmosphere  of  ease  and 
cheer — good  substitutes  for  wit  and  intellectuality. 
Upon  her  beauty  and  amiability  rested  the  popu- 
larity of  her  salon,  which  succeeded  in  uniting  all 
the  social  factors  of  that  period. 

The  nucleus  of  her  social  gatherings  consisted  of 
the  representatives  of  the  old  literary  traditions, 
Nicolai,  Ramler,  Engel,  and  Moritz,  and  they  cu- 
riously enough  attracted  the  theologians  Spalding, 
Teller,  Zollner,  and  later  Schleiermacher,  whose  in- 
timacy with  his  hostess  is  a  matter  of  history.  Music 
was  represented  by  Reichardt  and  Wesseli;  art,  by 
Schadow;  and  the  nobility  by  Bernstorff,  Dotina, 
Brinkmann,  Friedrich  von  Gentz,  and  the  Hum- 
boldts.  Her  drawing-room  was  the  hearth  of  the 
romantic  movement,  and*  as  may  be  imagined,  her 
example  was  followed  for  better  and  for  worse  by 
her  friends  and  sisters  in  faith,  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  century,  Berlin  could  boast  a  number  of  salons, 
meeting-places  of  the  nobility,  literary  men,  and  cul- 
tured Jews,  for  the  friendly  exchange  of  spiritual 
and  intellectual  experiences.  Henriette  Herz's  salon 
became  important  not  only  for  society  in  Berlin,  but 
also  for  German  literature,  three  great  literary  move- 
ments being  sheltered  in  it:  the  classical,  the  roman- 
tic, and,  through  Ludwig  Borne,  that  of  "Young 
Germany."  Judaism  alone  was  left  unrepresented. 
In  fact,  she  and  all  her  cultured  Jewish  friends  has- 
tened to  free  themselves  of  their  troublesome  Jewish 
affiliations,  or,  at  least,  concealed  them  as  best  they 
could.  Years  afterwards,  Borne  spent  his  ridicule 


3H  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

upon  the  Jewesses  of  the  Berlin  salons,  with  their 
enormous  racial  noses  and  their  great  gold  crosses 
at  their  throats,  pressing  into  Trinity  church  to  hear 
Schleiermacher  preach.  But  justice  compels  us  to  say 
that  these  women  did  not  know  Judaism,  or  knew 
it  only  in  its  slave's  garb.  Had  they  had  a  concep- 
tion of  its  high  ethical  standard,  of  the  wealth  of  its 
poetic  and  philosophic  thoughts,  being  women  of 
rare  mental  gifts  and  broad  liberality,  they  certainly 
would  not  have  abandoned  Judaism.  But  the  Juda- 
ism of  their  Berlin,  as  represented  by  its  religious 
teachers  and  the  leaders  of  the  Jewish  community, 
most  of  them,  according  to  Mendelssohn's  own  ac- 
count, immigrant  Poles,  could  not  appeal  to  women 
of  keen,  intellectual  sympathies,  and  tastes  conform- 
ing to  the  ideals  of  the  new  era. 

As  for  Mendelssohn's  friends  who  flocked  to  his 
hospitable  home — their  names  are  household  words 
in  the  history  of  German  literature.  Nicolai  and 
Lessing  must  be  mentioned  before  all  others,  but 
no  one  came  to  Berlin  without  seeking  Moses  Men- 
delssohn— Goethe,  Herder,  Wieland,  Hennings, 
Abt,  Campe,  Moritz,  Jerusalem.  Joachim  Campe 
has  left  an  account  of  his  visit  at  Mendelssohn's 
house,  which  is  probably  a  just  picture  of  its  attrac- 
tions.1 He  says:  "  On  a  Friday  afternoon,  my  wife 
and  myself,  together  with  some  of  the  distinguished 
representatives  of  Berlin  scholarship,  visited  Men- 
delssohn. We  were  chatting  over  our  coffee,  when 
Mendelssohn,  about  an  hour  before  sundown,  rose 

1  Cmp.  I.  Heinemann,  Moses  Mendelssohn,  p.  21. 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  315 

from  his  seat  with  the  words :  '  Ladies  and  gentle- 
men, I  must  leave  you  to  receive  the  Sabbath.  I 
shall  be  with  you  again  presently;  meantime  my 
wife  will  enjoy  your  company  doubly/  All  eyes 
followed  our  amiable  philosopher-host  with  reverent 
admiration  as  he  withdrew  to  an  adjoining  room  to 
recite  the  customary  prayers.  At  the  end  of  half  an 
hour  he  returned,  his  face  radiant,  and  seating  him- 
self, he  said  to  his  wife:  i  Now  I  am  again  at  my 
post,  and  shall  try  for  once  to  do  the  honors  in  your 
place.  Our  friends  will  certainly  excuse  you,  while 
you  fulfil  your  religious  duties/  Mendelssohn's  wife 
excused  herself,  joined  her  family,  consecrated  the 
Sabbath  by  lighting  the  Sabbath  lamp,  and  returned 
to  us.  We  stayed  on  for  some  hours."  Is  it  pos- 
sible to  conceive  of  a  more  touching  picture? 

When  Duchess  Dorothea  of  Kurland,  and  her 
sister  Elise  von  der  Recke  were  living  at  Friedrichs- 
felde  near  Berlin  in  1785,  they  invited  Mendelssohn, 
whom  they  were  eager  to  know,  to  visit  them. 
When  dinner  was  announced,  Mendelssohn  was  not 
to  be  found.  The  companion  of  the  two  ladies 
writes  in  her  journal  i1  "  He  had  quietly  slipped  away 
to  the  inn  at  which  he  had  ordered  a  frugal  meal. 
From  a  motive  entirely  worthy  I  am  sure,  this  phil- 
osopher never  permits  himself  to  be  invited  to  a 
meal  at  a  Christian's  house.  Not  to  be  deprived  of 
Mendelssohn's  society  too  long,  the  duchess  rose 
from  the  table  as  soon  as  possible."  Mendelssohn 
returned,  stayed  a  long  time,  and,  on  bidding  adieu 

1  Cmp.  Buker  and  Caro,  Vor  hundert  Jahren,  p.  123. 


3l6  THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN 

to  the  duchess,  he  said :  "  To-day,  I  have  had  a  chat 
with  mind." 

This  was  Berlin  society  at  Mendelssohn's  time, 
and  its  toleration  and  humanity  are  the  more  to  be 
valued  as  the  majority  of  Jews  by  no  means  emu- 
lated Mendelssohn's  enlightened  example.  All  their 
energies  were  absorbed  in  the  effort  of  compliance 
with  the  charter  of  Frederick  the  Great,  which  im- 
posed many  vexatious  restrictions.  On  marrying, 
they  were  still  compelled  to  buy  the  inferior  porce- 
lain made  by  the  royal  manufactory.  The  whole  of 
the  Jewish  community  continued  to  be  held  respon- 
sible for  a  theft  committed  by  one  of  its  members. 
Jews  were  not  yet  permitted  to  become  manufac- 
turers. Bankrupt  Jews,  without  investigation  of 
each  case,  were  considered  cheats.  Their  use  of  land 
and  waterways  was  hampered  by  many  petty  obstruc- 
tions. In  every  field  an  insurmountable  barrier 
rose  between  them  and  their  Christian  fellow-citi- 
zens. Mendelssohn's  great  task  was  the  moral  and 
spiritual  regeneration  of  his  brethren  in  faith.  In 
all  disputes  his  word  was  final.  He  hoped  to  bring 
about  reforms  by  influencing  his  people's  inner  life. 
Schools  were  founded,  and  every  means  used  to 
further  culture  and  education,  but  he  met  with  much 
determined  opposition  among  his  fellow-believers. 
Of  Ephraim,  the  debaser  of  the  coin,  we  have 
spoken;  also  of  the  king's  manner  towards  Jews. 
Here  is  another  instance  of  his  brusqueness:  Abra- 
ham Posner  begged  for  permission  to  shave  his 
beard.  Frederick  wrote  on  the  margin  of  his  peti- 


THE    TIME    OF    MENDELSSOHN  317 

tion :  uDer  Jude  Posner  soil  mich  und  seinen  Bart 
ungeschoren  lassen?"1 

Lawsuits  of  Jews  against  French  and  German 
traders  made  a  great  stir  in  those  days.  It  was  only 
after  much  annoyance  that  a  naturalization  patent 
was  obtained  by  the  family  of  Daniel  Itzig,  the 
father-in-law  of  David  Friedlander,  founder  of 
the  Jews'  Free  School  in  Berlin.  In  other  cases, 
no  amount  of  effort  could  secure  the  patent,  the  king 
saying:  "Whatever  concerns  your  trade  is  well  and 
good.  But  I  cannot  permit  you  to  settle  tribes  of 
Jews  in  Berlin,  and  turn  it  into  a  young  Jerusa- 
lem."— 

This  is  a  picture  of  Jewish  society  in  Berlin  one 
hundred  years  ago.  It  united  the  most  diverse  cur- 
rents and  tendencies,  emanating  from  romanticism, 
classicism,  reform,  orthodoxy,  love  of  trade,  and 
efforts  for  spiritual  regeneration.  In  all  this  queer 
tangle,  Moses  Mendelssohn  alone  stands  untainted, 
his  form  enveloped  in  pure,  white  light. 


LEOPOLD  ZUNZ1 

We  are  assembled  for  the  solemn  duty  of  paying 
a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  him  whose  name  graces 
our  lodge.  A  twofold  interest  attaches  us  to  Leo- 
pold Zunz,  appealing,  as  he  does,  to  our  local  pride, 
and,  beyond  and  above  that,  to  our  Jewish  feelings. 
Leopold  Zunz  was  part  of  the  Berlin  of  the  past, 
every  trace  of  which  is  vanishing  with  startling  ra- 
pidity. Men,  houses,  streets  are  disappearing,  and 
soon  naught  but  a  memory  will  remain  of  old  Ber- 
lin, not,  to  be  sure,  a  City  Beautiful,  yet  filled  for 
him  that  knew  it  with  charming  associations.  A 
precious  remnant  of  this  dear  old  Berlin  was  buried 
forever,  when,  on  one  misty  day  of  the  spring  of 
1886,  we  consigned  to  their  last  resting  place  the 
mortal  remains  of  Leopold  Zunz.  Memorial  ad- 
dresses are  apt  to  abound  in  such  expressions  as 
"immortal,"  "imperishable,"  and  in  flowery  trib- 
utes. This  one  shall  not  indulge  in  them,  although 
to  no  one  could  they  more  fittingly  be  applied  than 
to  Leopold  Zunz,  a  pioneer  in  the  labyrinth  of 
science,  and  the  architect  of  many  a  stately  palace 
adorning  the  path  but  lately  discovered  by  himself. 
Surely,  such  an  one  deserves  the  cordial  recognition 
and  enduring  gratitude  of  posterity. 

'Address  delivered  at  the  installation  of  the  Leopold  Zunz 
Lodge  at  Berlin. 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  319 

Despite  the  fact  that  Zunz  was  born  at  Detmold 
(August  10,  1794),  he  was  an  integral  part  of  old 
Berlin — a  Berlin  citizen,  not  by  birth,  but  by  voca- 
tion, so  to  speak.  His  being  was  intertwined  with 
its  life  by  a  thousand  tendrils  of  intellectual  sym- 
pathy. The  city,  in  turn,  or,  to  be  topographically 
precise,  the  district  between  Mauerstrasse  and  Rosen- 
strasse  knew  and  loved  him  as  one  of  its  public 
characters.  Time  was  when  his  witticisms  leapt 
from  mouth  to  mouth  in  the  circuit  between  the 
Varnhagen  salon  and  the  synagogue  in  the  Heide- 
reutergasse,  everywhere  rinding  appreciative  listen- 
ers. An  observer  stationed  Unter  den  Linden  daily 
for  more  than  thirty  years  might  have  seen  a  pecu- 
liar couple  stride  briskly  towards  the  Thiergarten  in 
the  early  afternoon.  The  loungers  at  Spargnapani's 
cafe  regularly  interrupted  their  endless  newspaper 
reading  to  crane  their  necks  and  say  to  one  another. 
"  There  go  Dr.  Zunz  and  his  wife." 

In  his  obituary  notice  of  the  poet  Mosenthal, 
Franz  Dingelstedt  roguishly  says :  "  He  was  of  poor, 
albeit  Jewish  parentage."  The  same  applies  to 
Zunz,  only  the  saying  would  be  truer,  if  not  so 
witty,  in  this  form :  "  He  was  of  Jewish,  hence  of 
poor,  parentage."  Among  German  Jews  through- 
out the  middle  ages  and  up  to  the  first  half  of  this 
century,  poverty  was  the  rule,  a  comfortable  com- 
petency a  rare  exception,  wealth  an  unheard  of  con- 
dition. But  Jewish  poverty  was  relieved  of  sordid- 
ness  by  a  precious  gift  of  the  old  rabbis,  who  said: 
"Have  a  tender  care  of  the  children  of  the  poor; 


32O  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

from  them  goeth  forth  the  Law '' ;  an  admonition 
and  a  prediction  destined  to  be  illustrated  in  the 
case  of  Zunz.  Very  early  he  lost  his  mother,  and 
the  year  1805  finds  him  bereft  of  both  parents,  un- 
der the  shelter  and  in  the  loving  care  of  an  institu- 
tion founded  by  a  pious  Jew  in  Wolfenbiittel.  Here 
he  was  taught  the  best  within  the  reach  of  German 
Jews  of  the  day,  the  alpha  and  omega  of  whose 
knowledge  and  teaching  were  comprised  in  the  Tal- 
mud. The  Wolfenbiittel  school  may  be  called  pro- 
gressive, inasmuch  as  a  teacher,  watchmaker  by 
trade  and  novel-writer  by  vocation,  was  engaged  to 
give  instruction  four  times  a  week  in  the  three  R's. 
We  may  be  sure  that  those  four  lessons  were  not 
given  with  unvarying  regularity. 

In  his  scholastic  home,  Leopold  Zunz  met  Isaac 
Marcus  Jost,  a  waif  like  himself,  later  the  first  Jew- 
ish historian,  to  whom  we  owre  interesting  details  of 
Zunz's  early  life.  In  his  memoirs1  he  tells  the  fol- 
lowing: "  Zunz  had  been  entered  as  a  pupil  before 
I  arrived.  Even  in  those  early  days  there  were  evi- 
dences of  the  acumen  of  the  future  critic.  He  was 
dominated  by  the  spirit  of  contradiction.  On  the 
sly  we  studied  grammar,  his  cleverness  helping  me 
over  many  a  stumbling-block.  He  was  very  witty, 
and  wrote  a  lengthy  Hebrew  satire  on  our  tyrants, 
from  which  we  derived  not  a  little  amusement  as 
each  part  was  finished.  Unfortunately,  the  misde- 
meanor was  detected,  and  the  corpus  delicti  con- 
signed to  the  flames,  but  the  sobriquet  chotsuf  (im- 
pudent fellow)  clung  to  the  writer." 

1  In  Sippurim,  I., 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  321 

It  is  only  just  to  admit  that  in  this  Beth  ha- Mid- 
rash  Zunz  laid  the  foundation  of  the  profound,  com- 
prehensive scholarship  on  Talmudic  subjects,  the 
groundwork  of  his  future  achievements  as  a  critic. 
The  circumstance  that  both  these  embryo  historians 
had  to  draw  their  first  information  about  history 
from  the  Jewish  German  paraphrase  of  "  Yosip- 
pon,"  an  historical  compilation,  is  counterbalanced 
by  careful  instruction  in  Rabbinical  literature,  whose 
labyrinthine  ways  soon  became  paths  of  light  to 
them. 

A  new  day  broke,  and  in  its  sunlight  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  changed.  In  1808  the  Beth  ha-Mid- 
rash  was  suddenly  transformed  into  the  "  Samson- 
school,"  still  in  useful  operation.  It  became  a  pri- 
mary school,  conducted  on  approved  pedagogic 
principles,  and  Zunz  and  Jost  were  among  the  first 
registered  under  the  new,  as  they  had  been  under 
the  old,  administration.  Though  the  one  was  thir- 
teen, and  the  other  fourteen  years  old,  they  had  to 
begin  with  the  very  rudiments  of  reading  and  writ- 
ing. Campe's  juvenile  books  were  the  first  they 
read.  A  year  later  finds  them  engaged  in  secretly 
studying  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics  during  the 
long  winter  evenings,  by  the  light  of  bits  of  candles 
made  by  themselves  of  drippings  from  the  great  wax 
tapers  in  the  synagogue.  After  another  six  months, 
Zunz  was  admitted  to  the  first  class  of  the  Wolfen- 
buttel,  and  Jost  to  that  of  the  Brunswick,  gymna- 
sium. It  characterizes  the  men  to  say  that  Zunz 
was  the  first,  and  Jost  the  third,  Jew  in  Germany  to 


322  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

enter  a  gymnasium.  Now  progress  was  rapid.  The 
classes  of  the  gymnasium  were  passed  through  with 
astounding  ease,  and  in  1811,  with  a  minimum 
of  luggage,  but  a  very  considerable  mental  equip- 
ment, Zunz  arrived  in  Berlin,  never  to  leave  it  ex- 
cept for  short  periods.  He  entered  upon  a  course 
in  philology  at  the  newly  founded  university,  and 
after  three  years  of  study,  he  wras  in  the  unenviable 
position  to  be  able  to  tell  himself  that  he  had  at- 
tained to — nothing. 

For,  to  what  could  a  cultured  Jew  attain  in  those 
days,  unless  he  became  a  lawyer  or  a  physician? 
The  Hardenberg  edict  had  opened  academical  ca- 
reers to  Jews,  but  when  Zunz  finished  his  studies, 
that  provision  was  completely  forgotten.  So  he 
became  a  preacher.  A  rich  Jew,  Jacob  Herz  Beer, 
the  father  of  two  highly  gifted  sons,  Giacomo  and 
Michael  Beer,  had  established  a  private  synagogue 
in  his  house,  and  here  officiated  Edward  Kley,  C. 
Giinsburg,  J.  L.  Auerbach,  and,  from  1820  to  1822, 
Leopold  Zunz.  It  is  not  known  why  he  resigned 
his  position,  but  to  infer  that  he  had  been  forced  to 
embrace  the  vocation  of  a  preacher  by  the  stress  of 
circumstances  is  unjust.  At  that  juncture  he  prob- 
ably would  have  chosen  it,  if  he  had  been  offered 
the  rectorship  of  the  Berlin  university;  for,  he  was 
animated  by  somewhat  of  the  spirit  that  urged  the 
prophets  of  old  to  proclaim  and  fulfil  their  mission 
in  the  midst  of  storms  and  in  despite  of  threatening 
dangers. 

Zunz's  sermons  delivered  from   1820  to  1822  in 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  323 

the  first  German  reform  temple  are  truly  instinct 
with  the  prophetic  spirit.  The  breath  of  a  mighty 
enthusiasm  rises  from  the  yellowed  pages.  Every 
word  testifies  that  they  were  indited  by  a  writer  of 
puissant  individuality,  disengaged  from  the  shackles 
of  conventional  homiletics,  and  boldly  striking  out  on 
untrodden  paths.  In  the  Jewish  Berlin  of  the  day, 
a  rationalistic,  half-cultured  generation,  swaying  ir- 
resolutely between  Mendelssohn  and  Schleiermacher, 
these  new  notes  awoke  sympathetic  echoes.  But 
scarcely  had  the  music  of  his  voice  become  familiar, 
when  it  was  hushed.  In  1823,  a  royal  cabinet  order 
prohibited  the  holding  of  the  Jewish  service  in  Ger- 
man, as  well  as  every  other  innovation  in  the  ritual, 
and  so  German  sermons  ceased  in  the  synagogue. 
Zunz,  who  had  spoken  like  Moses,  now  held  his 
peace  like  Aaron,  in  modesty  and  humility,  yielding 
to  the  inevitable  without  rancor  or  repining,  always 
loyal  to  the  exalted  ideal  which  inspired  him  under 
the  most  depressing  circumstances.  He  dedicated 
his  sermons,  delivered  at  a  time  of  religious  enthu- 
siasm, to  "  youth  at  the  crossroads,"  whom  he  had 
in  mind  throughout,  in  the  hope  that  they  might 
"  be  found  worthy  to  lead  back  to  the  Lord  hearts, 
which,  through  deception  or  by  reason  of  stubborn- 
ness, have  fallen  away  from  Him." 

The  rescue  of  the  young  was  his  ideal.  At  the 
very  beginning  of  his  career  he  recognized  that  the 
old  were  beyond  redemption,  and  that,  if  response 
and  confidence  were  to  be  won  from  the  young,  the 
expounding  of  the  new  Judaism  was  work,  not  for 


324  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

the  pulpit,  but  for  the  professor's  chair.  "  Devo- 
tional exercises  and  balmy  lotions  for  the  soul " 
could  not  heal  their  wounds.  It  was  imperative  to 
bring  their  latent  strength  into  play.  Knowing  this 
to  be  his  pedagogic  principle,  we  shall  not  go  far 
wrong,  if  we  suppose  that  in  the  organization  of  the 
"  Society  for  Jewish  Culture  and  Science  "  the  ini- 
tial step  was  taken  by  Leopold  Zunz.  In  1819 
when  the  mobs  of  Wiirzburg,  Hamburg,  and 
Frankfort-on-the-Main  revived  the  "  Hep,  hep !  " 
cry,  three  young  men,  Edward  Cans,  Moses  Moser, 
and  Leopold  Zunz  conceived  the  idea  of  a  society 
with  the  purpose  of  bringing  Jews  into  harmony 
with  their  age  and  environment,  not  by  forcing  up- 
on them  views  of  alien  growth,  but  by  a  rational 
training  of  their  inherited  faculties.  Whatever  might 
serve  to  promote  intelligence  and  culture  was  to  be 
nurtured:  schools,  seminaries,  academies,  were  to 
be  erected,  literary  aspirations  fostered,  and  all  pub- 
lic-spirited enterprises  aided;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
rising  generation  was  to  be  induced  to  devote  itself 
to  arts,  trades,  agriculture,  and  the  applied  sciences; 
finally,  the  strong  inclination  to  commerce  on  the 
part  of  Jews  was  to  be  curbed,  and  the  tone  and 
conditions  of  Jewish  society  radically  changed — 
lofty  goals  for  the  attainment  of  which  most  limited 
means  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  projectors.  The 
first  fruits  of  the  society  were  the  "  Scientific  Insti- 
tute," and  the  "  Journal  for  the  Science  of  Judaism," 
published  in  the  spring  of  1822,  under  the  editorship 
of  Zunz.  Only  three  numbers  appeared,  and  they 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  325 

met  with  so  small  a  sale  that  the  cost  of  printing 
was  not  realized.  Means  were  inadequate,  the  plans 
magnificent,  the  times  above  all  not  ripe  for  such 
ideals.  The  "Scientific  Institute"  crumbled  away, 
too,  and  in  1823,  the  society  was  breathing  its  last. 
Zunz  poured  out  the  bitterness  of  his  disag£oinir 
ment  in  a  letter  written  in  the  summer  of  18^4  to  his 
Hamburg  friend  Immanuel  Wohlwill: 

"  I  am  so  disheartened  that  I  can  nevermore  be- 
lieve in  Jewish  reform.  A  stone  must  be  thrown  at 
this  phantasm  to  make  it  vanish.  Good  Jews  are 
either  Asiatics,  or  Christians  (unconscious  thereof), 
besides  a  small  minority  consisting  of  myself  and  a 
few  others,  the  possibility  of  mentioning  whom 
saves  me  from  the  imputation  of  conceit,  though, 
truth  to  say,  the  bitterness  of  irony  cares  precious 
little  for  the  forms  of  good  society.  Jews,  and  the 
Judaism  which  we  wish  to  reconstruct,  are  a  prey 
to  disunion,  and  the  booty  of  vandals,  fools,  money- 
changers, idiots,  and  pamassim*  Many  a  change 
of  season  will  pass  over  this  generation,  and  leave 
it  unchanged:  internally  ruptured;  rushing  into  the 
arms  of  Christianity,  the  religion  of  expediency; 
without  stamina  and  without  principle;  one  section 
thrust  aside  by  Europe,  and  vegetating  in  filth  with 
longing  eyes  directed  towards  the  Messiah's  ass  or 
other  member  of  the  long-eared  fraternity;  the  other 
occupied  with  fingering  state  securities  and  the 
pages  of  a  cyclopaedia,  and  constantly  oscillating 
between  wealth  and  bankruptcy,  oppression  and 

'Administrators  of  the  secular  affairs  of  Jewish  congrega- 
tions. [Tr.] 


326  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

tolerance.  Their  own  science  is  dead  among  Jews, 
and  the  intellectual  concerns  of  European  nations 
do  not  appeal  to  them,  because,  faithless  to  them- 
selves, they  are  strangers  to  abstract  truth  and 
slaves  of  self-interest.  This  abject  wretchedness  is 
stamped  upon  their  penny-a-liners,  their  preachers, 
councillors,  constitutions,  parnassim,  titles,  meet- 
ings, institutions,  subscriptions,  their  literature,  their 
book-trade,  their  representatives,  their  happiness, 
and  their  misfortune.  No  heart,  no  feeling!  All 
a  medley  of  prayers,  banknotes,  and  rachmones, 
with  a  few  strains  of  enlightenment  &n&chttlukl* — 

Now,  my  friend,  after  so  revolting  a  sketch  of 
Judaism,  you  will  hardly  ask  why  the  society  and  the 
journal  have  vanished  into  thin  air,  and  are  missed 
as  little  as  the  temple,  the  school,  and  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  The  society  might  have  survived  de- 
spite its  splitting  up  into  sections.  That  was  merely 
a  mistake  in  management.  The  truth  is  that  it  never 
had  existence.  Five  or  six  enthusiasts  met  to- 
gether, and  like  Moses  ventured  to  believe  that  their 
spirit  would  communicate  itself  to  others.  That 
was  self-deception.  The  only  imperishable  possession 
rescued  from  this  deluge  is  the  science  of  Judaism. 
It  lives  even  though  not  a  finger  has  been  raised  in 
its  service  since  hundreds  of  years.  I  confess  that, 
barring  submission  to  the  judgment  of  Gody  I  find 
solace  only  in  the  cultivation  of  the  science  of  Judaism. 

As  for  myself,  those  rough  experiences  of  mine 
shall  assuredly  not  persuade  me  into  a  course  of 
1  Compassion,  charity.  [Tr.]  2  Talmudical  dialectics.  [Tr.] 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  327 

action  inconsistent  with  my  highest  aspirations.  I 
did  what  I  held  my  duty.  I  ceased  to  preach,  not 
in  order  to  fall  away  from  my  own  words,  but  be- 
cause I  realized  that  I  was  preaching  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Sapienti  sat.  .  .  After  all  that  I  have  said, 
you  will  readily  understand  that  I  cannot  favor  an 
unduly  ostentatious  mode  of  dissolution.  Such  a 
course  would  be  prompted  by  the  vanity  of  the 
puffed-out  frog  in  the  fable,  and  affect  the  Jews  .  . 
as  little  as  all  that  has  gone  before.  There  is 
nothing  for  the  members  to  do  but  to  remain  un- 
shaken, and  radiate  their  influence  in  their  limited 
circles,  leaving  all  else  to  God." 

The  man  who  wrote  these  words,  it  is  hard  to 
realize,  had  not  yet  passed  his  thirtieth  year,  but  his 
aim  in  life  was  perfectly  defined.  He  knew  the  path 
leading  to  his  goal,  and — most  .important  circum- 
stance— never  deviated  from  it  until  he  attained  it. 
His  activity  throughout  life  shows  no  inconsistency 
with  his  plans.  It  is  his  strength  of  character,  rar- 
est of  attributes  in  a  time  of  universal  defection  from 
the  Jewish  standard,  that  calls  for  admiration,  ac- 
corded by  none  so  readily  as  by  his  companions  in 
arms.  Casting  up  his  own  spiritual  accounts, 
Heinrich  Heine  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  wrote  of 
his  friend  Zunz  :*  "  In  the  instability  of  a  transition 
period  he  was  characterized  by  incorruptible  con- 
stancy, remaining1  true,  despite  his  acumen,  his 
scepticism,  and  his  scholarship,  to  self-imposed 
promises,  to  the  exalted  hobby  of  his  soul.  A  man 

1  Cmp.  Strodtmann  :     II.  Heine,  Vol.  I.,  p.  316. 


328  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

of  thought  and  action,  he  created  and  worked  when 
others  hesitated,  and  sank  discouraged/'  or,  what 
Heine  prudently  omitted  to  say,  deserted  the  flag, 
and  stealthily  slunk  out  of  the  life  of  the  oppressed. 

In  Zunz,  strength  of  character  was  associated  with 
a  mature,  richly  stored  mind.  He  was  a  man  of 
talent,  of  character,  and  of  science,  and  this  rare 
union  of  traits  is  his  distinction.  At  a  time  when 
the  majority  of  his  co-religionists  could  not  grasp 
the  plain,  elementary  meaning  of  the  phrase,  "  the 
science  of  Judaism,"  he  made  it  the  loadstar  of  his 
life. 

Sad  though  it  be,  I  fear  that  it  is  true  that  there 
are  those  of  this  generation  who,  after  the  lapse  of 
years,  are  prompted  to  repeat  the  question  put  by 
Zunz's  contemporaries,  "  What  is  the  science  of 
Judaism?"  Zunz  gave  a  comprehensive  answer  in 
a  short  essay,  "  On  Rabbinical  Literature,"  pub- 
lished by  Mauer  in  iSiS:1  "When  the  shadows  of 
barbarism  were  gradually  lifting  from  the  mist- 
shrouded  earth,  and  light  universally  diffused  could 
not  fail  to  strike  the  Jews  scattered  everywhere,  a 
remnant  of  old  Hebrew  learning  attached  itself  to 
new,  foreign  elements  of  culture,  and  in  the  course 
of  centuries  enlightened  minds  elaborated  the  hetero- 
geneous ingredients  into  the  literature  called  rabbini- 
cal." To  this  rabbinical,  or,  to  use  the  more  fitting 
name  proposed  by  himself,  this  neo-Hebraic,  Jew- 
ish literature  and  science,  Zunz  devoted  his  love, 
his  work,  his  life.  Since  centuries  this  field  of 

1  Zunz,  Gtsammelte  Schriften,  Vol.  I.,  p.  ^ff. 


LEOPOLD  ZUNZ  329 

knowledge  had  been  a  trackless,  uncultivated  waste. 
He  who  would  pass  across,  had  need  to  be  a  path- 
finder, robust  and  energetic,  able  to  concentrate  his 
mind  upon  a  single  aim,  undisturbed  by  distracting 
influences.  Such  was  Leopold  Zunz,  who  sketched 
in  bold,  but  admirably  precise  outlines  the  extent 
of  Jewish  science,  marking  the  boundaries  of  its  sev- 
eral departments,  estimating  its  resources,  and  lay- 
ing out  the  work  and  aims  of  the  future.  The  words 
of  the  prophet  must  have  appealed  to  him  with  pecu- 
liar force :  "  I  remember  unto  thee  the  kindness  of 
thy  youth,  the  love  of  thy  espousals,  thy  going  after 
me  in  the  wilderness,  through  a  land  that  is  not 
sown." 

Again,  when  there  was  question  of  cultivating  the 
desert  soil,  and  seeking  for  life  under  the  rubbish, 
Zunz  was  the  first  to  present  himself  as  a  laborer. 
The  only  fruit  of  the  Society  for  Jewish  Culture  and 
Science,  during  the  three  years  of  its  existence,  was 
the  "  Journal  for  the  Science  of  Judaism,"  and  its 
publication  was  due  exclusively  to  Zunz's  persever- 
ance. Thoughi  only  three  numbers  appeared,  a 
positive  addition  to  our  literature  was  made  through 
them  in  Zunz's  biographical  essay  on  Rashi,  the  old 
master  expounder  of  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud. 
By  its  arrangement  of  material,  by  its  criticism  and 
grouping  of  facts,  and  not  a  little  by  its  brilliant 
style,  this  essay  became  the  model  for  all  future 
work  on  kindred  subjects.  When  the  society  dis- 
solved, and  Zunz  was  left  to  enjoy  undesired  leisure, 
he  continued  to  work  on  the  lines  laid  down  therein. 


33O  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

Besides,  Zunz  was  a  political  journalist,  for  many 
years  political  editor  of  "  Spener s  Journal,"  and  a 
contributor  to  the  Gcsellschafter,  the  Iris,  Die  Frei- 
mutigen,  and  other  publications  of  a  literary  char- 
acter. From  1825  to  1829,  he  was  a  director  of  the 
newly  founded  Jewish  congregational  school;  for 
one  year  he  occupied  the  position  of  preacher  at 
Prague;  and  from  1839  to  1849,  the  year  °f  its  final 
closing,  he  acted  as  trustee  of  the  Jewish  teachers' 
seminary  in  Berlin.  Thereafter  he  had  no  official 
position. 

As  a  politician  he  was  a  pronounced  democrat. 
Reading  his  political  addresses  to-day,  after  a  lapse 
of  half  a  century,  we  find  in  them  the  clearness  and 
sagacity  that  distinguish  the  scientific  productions 
of  the  investigator.  Here  is  an  extract  from  his 
words  of  consolation  addressed  to  the  families  of  the 
heroes  of  the  March  revolution  of  I848:1 

"They  who  walked  our  streets  unnoticed,  who 
meditated  in  their  quiet  studies,  toiled  in  their  work- 
shops, cast  up  accounts  in  offices,  sold  wares  in  the 
shops,  were  suddenly  transformed  into  valiant 
fighters,  and  we  discovered  them  at  the  moment 
when  like  meteors  they  vanished.  When  they  grew 
lustrous,  they  disappeared  from  our  sight,  and  when 
they  became  our  deliverers,  we  lost  the  opportunity 
of  thanking  them.  Death  has  made  them  great  and 
precious  to  us.  Departing  they  poured  unmeasured 
wealth  upon  us  all,  who  were  so  poor.  Our  heads, 
parched  like  a  summer  sky,  produced  no  fruitful 

1  Ibid.9  p.  301. 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  33! 

rain  of  magnanimous  thoughts.  The  hearts  in  our 
bosoms,  turned  into  stone,  were  bereft  of  human 
sympathies.  Vanity  and  illusions  were  our  idols; 
lies  and  deception  poisoned  our  lives;  lust  and  ava- 
rice dictated  our  actions;  a  hell  of  immorality  and 
misery,  corroding  every  institution,  heated  the  at- 
mosphere to  suffocation,  until  black  clouds  gath- 
ered, a  storm  of  the  nations  raged  about  us,  and 
purifying  streaks  of  lightning  darted  down  upon  the 
barricades  and  into  the  streets.  Through  the  storm- 
wind,  I  saw  chariots  of  fire  and  horses  of  fire  bear- 
ing to  heaven  the  men  of  God  who  fell  fighting  for 
right  and  liberty.  I  hear  the  voice  of  God,  O  ye 
that  weep,  knighting  your  dear  ones.  The  freedom 
of  the  press  is  their  patent  of  nobility,  our  hearts, 
their  monuments.  Every  one  of  us,  every  German, 
is  a  mourner,  and  you,  survivors,  are  no  longer 
abandoned." 

In  an  election  address  of  February  1849,*  Zunz 
says :  "  The  first  step  towards  liberty  is  to  miss  lib- 
erty, the  second,  to  seek  it,  the  third,  to  find  it.  Of 
course,  many  years  may  pass  between  the  seeking 
and  the  finding."  And  further  on :  "  As  an  elector, 
I  should  give  my  vote  for  representatives  only  to 
men  of  principle  and  immaculate  reputation,  who 
neither  hesitate  nor  yield;  who  cannot  be  made  to 
say  cold  is  warm,  and  warm  is  cold;  who  disdain 
legal  subtleties,  diplomatic  intrigues,  lies  of  what- 
ever kind,  even  when  they  redound  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  party.  Such  are  worthy  of  the  confi- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  310. 


332  LEOPOLD  ZUNZ 

dence  of  the  people,  because  conscience  is  their 
monitor.  They  may  err,  for  to  err  is  human,  but 
they  will  never  deceive." 

Twelve  years  later,  on  a  similar  occasion,  he  ut- 
tered the  following  prophetic  words  i1  "  A  genuinely 
free  form  of  government  makes  a  people  free  and 
upright,  and  its  representatives  are  bound  to  be 
champions  of  liberty  and  progress.  If  Prussia,  un- 
furling the  banner  of  liberty  and  progress,  will  un- 
dertake to  provide  us  with  such  a  constitution,  our 
self-confidence,  energy,  and  trustfulness  will  return. 
Progress  will  be  the  fundamental  principle  of  our 
lives,  and  out  of  our  united  efforts  to  advance  it  will 
grow  a  firm,  indissoluble  union.  Now,  then,  Ger- 
mans! Be  resolved,  all  of  you,  to  attain  the  same 
goal,  and  your  will  shall  be  a  storm-wind  scattering 
like  chaff  whatever  is  old  and  rotten.  In  your 
struggle  for  a  free  country,  you  will  have  as  allies 
the  army  of  mighty  minds  that  have  suffered  for 
right  and  liberty  in  the  past.  Now  you  are  split  up 
into  tribes  and  clans,  held  together  only  by  the  bond 
of  language  and  a  classic  literature.  You  will  grow 
into  a  great  nation,  if  but  all  brother-tribes  will  join 
us.  Then  Germany,  strongly  secure  in  the  heart  of 
Europe,  will  be  able  to  put  an  end  to  the  quailing 
before  attacks  from  the  East  or  the  West,  and  cry 
a  halt  to  war.  The  empire,  some  one  has  said, 
means  peace.  Verily,  with  Prussia  at  its  head,  the 
German  empire  means  peace." 

Such   utterances  are  characteristic  of  Zunz,   the 

1  Ibid.,  p.  316. 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  333 

politician.  His  best  energies  and  efforts,  however, 
were  devoted  to  his  researches.  Science,  he  be- 
lieved, would  bring  about  amelioration  of  political 
conditions;  science,  he  hoped,  would  preserve  Ju- 
daism from  the  storms  and  calamities  of  his  genera- 
tion, for  the  fulfilment  of  its  historical  mission.  Pos- 
sessed by  this  idea,  he  wrote  Die  Goltesdienstlichen 
Vortrdge  der  Juden  ("Jewish  Homiletics,"  1832), 
the  basis  of  the  future  science  of  Judaism,  the  first 
clearing  in  the  primeval  forest  of  rabbinical  writ- 
ings, through  which  the  pioneer  led  his  followers 
with  steady  step  and  hand,  as  though  walking  on 
well  trodden  ground.  Heinrich  Heine,  who  appre- 
ciated Zunz  at  his  full  worth,  justly  reckoned  this 
book  "  among  the  noteworthy  productions  of  the 
higher  criticism/'  and  another  reviewer  with  equal 
justice  ranks  it  on  a  level  with  the  great  works  of 
Bockh,  Diez,  Grimm,  and  others  of  that  period, -the 
golden  age  of  philological  research  in  Germany. 

Like  almost  all  that  Zunz  wrote,  Die  Gottesdienst- 
lichen  Vortrdge  der  Juden  was  the  result  of  a  pole- 
mic need.  By  nature  Zunz  was  a  controversialist. 
Like  a  sentinel  upon  the  battlements,  he  kept  a  sharp 
lookout  upon  the  land.  Let  the  Jews  be  threatened 
with  injustice  by  ruler,  statesman,  or  scholar,  and 
straightway  he  attacked  the  enemy  with  the  weapons 
of  satire  and  science.  One  can  fancy  that  the  cabi- 
net order  prohibiting  German  sermons  in  the  syna- 
gogue, and  so  stifling  the  ambition  of  his  youth, 
awakened  the  resolve  to  trace  the  development  of 
the  sermon  among  Jews,  and  show  that  thousands 


334  LEOPOLD    ZUNZ 

of  years  ago  the  wellspring  of  religious  instruction 
bubbled  up  in  Judah's  halls  of  prayer,  and  has 
never  since  failed,  its  wealth  of  waters  overflowing 
into  the  popular  Midrash,  the  repository  of  little 
known,  unappreciated  treasures  of  knowledge  and 
experience,  accumulated  in  the  course  of  many  cen- 
turies. 

In  the  preface  to  this  book,  Zunz,  the  democrat, 
says  that  for  his  brethren  in  faith  he  demands  of  the 
European  powers,  "  not  rights  and  liberties,  but 
right  and  liberty.  Deep  shame  should  mantle  the 
cheek  of  him  who,  by  means  of  a  patent  of  nobility 
conferred  by  favoritism,  is  willing  to  rise  above  his 
co-religionists,  while  the  law  of  the  land  brands  him 
by  assigning  him  a  place  among  the  lowest  of  his 
co-citizens.  Only  in  the  rights  common  to  all  citi- 
zens can  we  find  satisfaction;  only  in  unquestioned 
equality,  the  end  of  our  pain.  Liberty  unshack- 
ling the  hand  to  fetter  the  tongue ;  tolerance  delight- 
ing not  in  our  progress,  but  in  our  decay;  citizen- 
ship promising  protection  without  honor,  imposing 
burdens  without  holding  out  prospects  of  advance- 
ment; they  all,  in  my  opinion,  are  lacking  in  love 
and  justice,  and  such  baneful  elements  in  the  body 
politic  must  needs  engender  pestiferous  diseases, 
affecting  the  whole  and  its  every  part." 

Zunz  sees  a  connection  between  the  civil  disabili- 
ties of  the  Jews  and  their  neglect  of  Jewish  science 
and  literature.  Untrammelled,  instructive  speech 
he  accounts  the  surest  weapon.  Hence  the  homilies 
of  the  Jews  appear  to  him  to  be  worthy,  and  to  stand 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  335 

in  need,  of  historical  investigation,  and  the  results  of 
his  research  into  their  origin,  development,  and 
uses,  from  the  time  of  Ezra  to  the  present  day,  are 
laid  down  in  this  epoch-making  work. 

The  law  forbidding  the  bearing  of  German  names 
by  Jews  provoked  Zunz's  famous  and  influential 
little  book,  "  The  Names  of  the  Jews,"  like  most  of 
his  later  writings  polemic  in  origin,  in  which  re- 
spect they  remind  one  of  Lessing's  works. 

In  the  ardor  of  youth  Zunz  had  borne  the  ban- 
ner of  reform;  in  middle  age  he  became  convinced 
that  the  young  generation  of  iconoclasts  had  rushed 
far  beyond  the  ideal  goal  of  the  reform  movement 
cherished  in  his  visions.  As  he  had  upheld  the  age 
and  sacred  uses  of  the  German  sermon  against  the 
assaults  of  the  orthodox;  so  for  the  benefit  and  in- 
struction of  radical  reformers,  he  expounded  the 
value  and  importance  of  the  Hebrew  liturgy  in  pro- 
found works,  which  appeared  during  a  period  of 
ten  years,  crystallizing  the  results  of  a  half-century's 
severe  application.  They  rounded  off  the  symmetry 
of  his  spiritual  activity.  For,  when  Midrashic  in- 
spiration ceased  to  flow,  the  piut — synagogue  poe- 
try— established  itself,  and  the  transformation  from 
the  one  into  the  other  was  the  active  principle  of 
neo-Hebraic  literature  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years.  Zunz's  vivifying  sympathies  knit  the  old  and 
the  new  into  a  wondrously  firm  historical  thread. 
Nowhere  have  the  harmony  and  continuity  of  Jew- 
ish literary  development  found  such  adequate  ex- 
pression as  in  his  Synagogale  Poesie  des  Mittelal- 


LEOPOLD  ZUNZ 


ters  (u  Synagogue  Poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages," 
1855),  Ritus  des  synagogalen  Gottesdienstes  (u  The 
Ritual  of  the  Synagogue,"  1859),  and  Litter  atur- 
geschichte  der  synagogalen  Poesie  ("  History  of 
Synagogue  Poetry,"  1864),  the  capstone  of  his  lit- 
erary endeavors. 

In  his  opinion,  the  only  safeguard  against  error 
lies  in  the  pursuit  of  science,  not,  indeed,  dryasdust 
science,  but  science  in  close  touch  with  the  exuber- 
ance of  life  regulated  by  high-minded  principles,  and 
transfigured  by  ideal  hopes.  Sermons  and  prayers 
in  harmonious  relation,  he  believed,1  will  "  enable 
some  future  generation  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  a  pro- 
gressive, rational  policy,  and  it  is  meet  that  science 
and  poetry  should  be  permeated  with  ideas  serving 
the  furtherance  of  such  policy.  Education  is 
charged  with  the  task  of  moulding  enlightened 
minds  to  think  the  thoughts  that  prepare  for  right- 
doing,  and  warm,  enthusiastic  hearts  to  execute 
commendable  deeds.  For,  after  all  is  said  and  done, 
the  well-being  of  the  community  can  only  grow  out 
of  the  intelligence  and  the  moral  life  of  each  mem- 
ber. Every  individual  that  strives  to  apprehend  the 
harmony  of  human  and  divine  elements  attains  to 
membership  in  the  divine  covenant.  The  divine  is 
the  aim  of  all  our  thoughts,  actions,  sentiments,  and 
hopes.  It  invests  our  lives  with  dignity,  and  sup- 
plies a  moral  basis  for  our  relations  to  one  another. 
\Yell,  then,  let  us  hope  for  redemption  —  for  the  uni- 
versal recognition  of  a  form  of  government  under 

1  Ibid.,  p.  133. 


LEOPOLD    ZUNZ  337 

which  the  rights  of  man  are  respected.  Then  free 
citizens  will  welcome  Jews  as  brethren,  and  Israel's 
prayers  will  be  offered  up  by  mankind." 

These  are  samples  of  the  thoughts  underlying 
Zunz's  great  works,  as  well  as  his  numerous  smaller, 
though  not  less  important,  productions:  biographi- 
cal and  critical  essays,  legal  opinions,  sketches  in 
the  history  of  literature,  reviews,  scientific  inquiries, 
polemical  and  literary  fragments,  collected  in  his 
work  Zur  Geschichte  und  Litterattir  (u  Contributions 
to  History  and  Literature,"  1873),  and  in  three  vol- 
umes of  collected  writings.  Since  the  publication 
of  his  "  History  of  Synagogue  Poetry,"  Zunz  wrote 
only  on  rare  occasions.  His  last  work  but  one  was 
Deutsche  Brief e  (1872)  on  German  language  and 
German  intellect,  and  his  last,  an  incisive  and  liberal 
contribution  to  Bible  criticism  (Studie  zur  Bibel- 
kritik,  1874),  published  in  the  Zeitschrift  der 
deutschen  morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft  in  Leip- 
sic.  From  that  time  on,  when  the  death  of  his  be- 
loved wife,  Adelheid  Zunz,  a  most  faithful  helpmate, 
friend,  counsellor,  and  support,  occurred,  he  was 
silent. 

Zunz  had  passed  his  seventieth  year  when  his 
"  History  of  Synagogue  Poetry "  appeared.  He 
could  permit  himself  to  indulge  in  well-earned  rest, 
and  from  the  vantage-ground  of  age  inspect  the 
bustling  activity  of  a  new  generation  of  friends  and 
disciples  on  the  once  neglected  field  of  Jewish 
science. 

Often  as  the  cause  of  religion  and  civil  liberty 


33^  LEOPOLD  ZUNZ 

received  a  check  at  one  place  or  another,  during 
those  long  years  when  he  stood  aside  from  the  tur- 
moil of  life,  a  mere  looker-on,  he  did  not  despair; 
he  continued  to  hope  undaunted.  Under  his  pic- 
ture he  wrote  sententiously :  "  Thought  is  strong 
enough  to  vanquish  arrogance  and  injustice  with- 
out recourse  to  arrogance  and  injustice." 

Zunz's  life  and  work  are  of  incalculable  import- 
ance to  the  present  age  and  to  future  generations. 
With  eagle  vision  he  surveyed  the  whole  domain 
of  Jewish  learning,  and  traced  the  lines  of  its  devel- 
opment. Constructive  as  well  as  critical,  he  raised 
widely  scattered  fragments  to  the  rank  of  a  litera- 
ture which  may  well  claim  a  place  beside  the  litera- 
tures of  the  nations.  Endowed  with  rare  strength 
of  character,  he  remained  unflinchingly  loyal  to  his 
ancestral  faith,  "the  exalted  hobby  of  his  soul"— 
a  model  for  three  generations.  Jewish  literature 
owes  to  him  a  scientific  style.  He  wrote  epigram- 
matic, incisive,  perspicuous  German,  stimulating 
and  suggestive,  such  as  Lessing  used.  The  reform 
movement  he  supported  as  a  legitimate  develop- 
ment of  Judaism  on  historical  lines.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  fostered  loyalty  to  Judaism  by  lucidly  pre- 
senting to  young  Israel  the  value  of  his  faith,  his 
intellectual  heritage,  and  his  treasures  of  poetry. 
Zunz,  then,  is  the  originator  of  a  momentous  phase 
in  our  development,  producing  among  its  adherents 
as  among  outsiders  a  complete  revolution  in  the  ap- 
preciation of  Judaism,  its  religious  and  intellectual 
aspects.  Together  with  self-knowledge  he  taught 


LEOPOLD   ZUNZ  339 

his  brethren  self-respect.  He  was,  in  short,  a  clear 
thinker  and  acute  critic ;  a  German,  deeply  attached 
to  his  beloved  country,  and  fully  convinced  of  the 
supremacy  of  German  mind ;  at  the  same  time,  an 
ardent  believer  in  Judaism,  imbued  with  some  of  the 
spirit  of  the  prophets,  somewhat  of  the  strength  of 
Jewish  heroes  and  martyrs,  who  sacrificed  life  for 
their  conviction,  and  with  dying  lips  made  the  an- 
cient confession:  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord,  our 
God,  the  Lord  is  one !  " 

His  name  is  an  abiding  possession  for  our  nation; 
it  will  not  perish  from  our  memory.  "  Good  night, 
my  prince!  O  that  angel  choirs  might  lull  thy 
slumbers!" 


HEINRICH  HEINE  AND  JUDAISM 

I 

No  modern  poet  has  aroused  so  much  discussion 
as  Heinrich  Heine.  His  works  are  known  every- 
where, and  quotations  from  them — gorgeous  butter- 
flies, stinging  gnats,  buzzing  bees — whizz  and  whirr 
through  the  air  of  our  century.  They  are  the  vade 
mecum  of  modern  life  in  all  its  moods  and  varia- 
tions. 

This  high  regard  is  a  recent  development.  With- 
in the  last  thirty  years  a  complete  change  has  taken 
place  in  public  opinion.  Soon  after  the  poet's  death, 
he  was  entirely  neglected.  The  Augsburger  Allge- 
meine  Zeitung,  whose  columns  had  for  decades  been 
enriched  with  his  contributions,  took  three  months 
to  get  up  a  little  obituary  notice.  Then  followed  a 
period  of  acrimonious  detraction;  at  last,  cordial 
appreciation  has  come. 

The  conviction  has  been  growing  that  in  Heine 
the  German  nation  must  revere  its  greatest  lyric  poet 
since  Goethe,  and  as  time  removes  him  from  us,  the 
baser  elements  of  his  character  recede  into  the 
background,  his  personality  is  lost  sight  of,  and  his 
poetry  becomes  the  paramount  consideration. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  Judaism?  Does  it  ac- 
340 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND  JUDAISM  341 

knowledge  Heine  as  its  son?  Is  it  disposed  to  ac- 
cept cum  beneficio  inventarii  the  inheritance  he  has 
bequeathed  to  it?  To  answer  these  questions  we 
must  review  Heine's  life,  his  relations  to  Judaism, 
his  opinions  on  Jewish  subjects,  and  the  qualities 
which  prove  him  heir  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  Jew- 
ish race. 

Heine's  family  was  Jewish.  On  the  paternal  side 
it  can  be  traced  to  Meyer  Samson  Popert  and 
Fromet  Heckscher  of  Altona;  on  the  maternal  side 
further  back,  to  Isaac  van  Geldern,  who  emigrated 
in  about  1700  from  Holland  to  the  duchy  of  Jiilich- 
Berg.  He  and  his  son  Lazarus  van  Geldern  were 
people  of  importance  at  Dusseldorf,  and  his  other 
sons,  Simon  and  Gottschalk,  were  known  and  re- 
spected beyond  the  confines  of  their  city.  Simon 
van  Geldern  was  the  author  of  "The  Israelites  on 
Mount  Horeb,"  a  didactic  poem  in  English,  and  on 
his  trip  to  the  East  he  kept  a  Hebrew  journal,  which 
can  still  be  seen.  His  younger  brother  Gottschalk 
was  a  distinguished  physician,  and  occupied  a  posi- 
tion of  high  dignity  in  the  Jewish  congregations  in 
the  duchies  of  Jiilich  and  Berg.  It  is  said  that  he 
provided  for  the  welfare  of  his  brethren  in  faith  "  as 
a  father  provides  for  his  children."  His  only  daugh- 
ter Betty  (Peierche)  van  Geldern,  urged  by  her 
family  and  in  obedience  to  the  promptings  of  her 
own  heart,  married  Samson  Heine,  and  became  the 
mother  of  the  poet.  Heine  himself  has  written  much 
about  his  family,1  particularly  about  his  mother's 

>Cmp.  Mcmoiren  in  his  Collected  Works,  Vol.  VI.,  p. 


342  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

brother.  Of  his  paternal  grandfather,  he  knew  only 
what  his  father  had  told  him,  that  he  was  "  a  little 
Jew  with  a  great  beard."  On  the  whole,  his  edu- 
cation was  strictly  religious,  but  it  was  tainted  with 
the  deplorable  inconsistency  so  frequently  found  in 
Jewish  homes.  Themselves  heedless  of  religious 
ceremonies,  parents  exact  from  their  children  punc- 
tilious observance  of  minute  regulations.  Samson 
Heine  was  one  of  the  Jews  often  met  with  in  the 
beginning  of  this  century  who,  lacking  true  culture, 
caught  up  some  of  the  encyclopaedist  phrases  with 
which  the  atmosphere  of  the  period  was  heavy. 
Heine  describes  his  father's  extraordinary  buoy- 
ancy: "Always  azure  serenity  and  fanfares  of  good 
humor."  The  reproach  is  characteristic  which  he 
addressed  to  his  son,  when  the  latter  was  charged 
with  atheism:  "Dear  son!  Your  mother  is  having 
you  instructed  in  philosophy  by  Rector  Schallmeier 
— that  is  her  affair.  As  for  me,  I  have  no  love  for 
philosophy;  it  is  nothing  but  superstition.  I  am  a 
merchant,  and  need  all  my  faculties  for  my  business. 
You  may  philosophize  as  much  as  you  please,  only, 
I  beg  of  you,  don't  tell  any  one  what  you  think.  It 
would  harm  my  business,  were  people  to  discover 
that  my  son  does  not  believe  in  God.  Particularly 
the  Jews  would  stop  buying  velvets  from  me,  and 
they  are  honest  folk,  and  pay  promptly.  And  they 
are  right  in  clinging  to  religion.  Being  your  fa- 
ther, therefore  older  than  you,  I  am  more  experi- 
enced, and  you  may  take  my  word  for  it,  atheism  is 
a  great  sin," 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  343 

Two  instances  related  by  Joseph  Neunzig,  one  of 
his  playmates,  show  how  rigorously  Harry  was 
compelled  to  observe  religious  forms  in  his  paternal 
home.  On  a  Saturday  the  children  were  out  walk- 
ing, when  suddenly  a  fire  broke  out.  The  fire  ex- 
tinguishers came  clattering  up  to  the  burning 
house,  but  as  the  flames  were  spreading  rapidly,  all 
bystanders  were  ordered  to  range  .themselves  in  line 
with  the  firemen.  Harry  refused  point-blank  to 
help :  "  I  may  not  do  it,  and  I  will  not,  because  it  is 
Shabbes  to-day."  But  another  time,  when  it  jumped 
with  his  wishes,  the  eight  year  old  boy  managed  to 
circumvent  the  Law.  He  was  playing  with  some 
of  his  schoolmates  in  front  of  a  neighbor's  house. 
Two  luscious  bunches  of  grapes  hung  over  the  ar- 
bor almost  down  to  the  ground.  The  children 
noticed  them,  and  with  longing  in  their  eyes  passed 
on.  Only  Harry  stood  still  before  the  grapes.  Sud- 
denly springing  on  the  arbor,  he  bit  one  grape  after 
another  from  the  bunch.  "  Red-head  Harry ! "  the 
children  exclaimed  horrified,  "  what  are  you  do- 
ing?" "Nothing  wrong/'  said  the  little  rogue. 
"  We  are  forbidden  to  pluck  them  with  our  hands, 
but  the  law  does  not  say  anything  about  biting  and 
eating."  His  education  was  not  equable  and  not 
methodical.  Extremely  indulgent  towards  them- 
selves, the  parents  were  extremely  severe  in  their 
treatment  of  their  children.  So  arose  the  contradic- 
tions in  the  poet's  character.  He  is  one  of  those  to 
whom  childhood's  religion  is  a  bitter-sweet  remem- 
brance unto  the  end  of  days.  Jewish  sympathies 


344  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

were  his  inalienable  heritage,  and  from  this  point  of 
view  his  life  must  be  considered. 

The  poet's  mother  was  of  a  different  stamp  from 
his  father.  Like  most  of  the  Jews  in  the  Rhenish 
provinces,  his  father  hailed  Napoleon,  the  first  legis- 
lator to  establish  equality  between  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians, as  a  savior.  His  mother,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  a  good  German  patriot  and  a  woman  of  culture, 
who  exercised  no  inconsiderable  influence  upon  the 
heart  and  mind  of  her  son.  Heine  calls  her  a  dis- 
ciple of  Rousseau,  and  his  brother  Maximilian  tells 
us  that  Goethe  was  her  favorite  among  authors. 

The  boy  was  first  taught  by  Rintelsohn  at  a  Jewish 
school,  but  his  knowledge  of  Hebrew  seems  to  have 
been  very  limited.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  his 
first  poem,  "  Belshazzar,"  which  he  tells  us  he  wrote 
at  the  age  of  sixteen,  was  inspired  by  his  childhood's 
faith  and  is  based  upon  Jewish  history.  Towards 
the  end  of  his  life  he  said  to  a  friend:1  "Do  you 
know  what  inspired  me?  A  few  words  in  the  He- 
brew hymn,  Wayhee  bechatsi  haldila,  sung,  as 
you  know,  on  the  first  two  evenings  of  the  Passover. 
This  hymn  commemorates  all  momentous  events  in 
the  history  of  the  Jews  that  occurred  at  midnight; 
among  them  the  death  of  the  Babylonian  tyrant, 
snatched  away  at  night  for  desecrating  the  holy 
Temple  vessels.  The  quoted  words  are  the  refrain 
of  the  hymn,  which  forms  part  of  the  Haggada,  the 
curious  medley  of  legends  and  songs,  recited  by 
pious  Jews  at  the  Seder?  Ay,  the  Passover  cele- 

JLudwig  Kalisch,  Pariser  Skizzen,  p.  331. 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  345 

bration,  the  Seder,  remained  in  the  poet's  memory 
till  the  day  of  his  death.  He  describes  it  still  later 
in  one  of  his  finest  works:1  "  Sweetly  sad,  joyous, 
earnest,  sportive,  and  elfishly  mysterious  is  that 
evening  service,  and  the  traditional  chant  with  which 
the  Haggada  is  recited  by  the  head  of  the  family, 
the  listeners  sometimes  joining  in  as  a  chorus,  is 
thrillingly  tender,  soothing  as  a  mother's  lullaby, 
yet  impetuous  and  inspiring,  so  that  Jews  who  long 
have  drifted  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  and 
have  been  pursuing  the  joys  and  dignities  of  the 
stranger,  even  they  are  stirred  in  their  inmost  parts 
when  the  old,  familiar  Passover  sounds  chance  to 
fall  upon  their  ears." 

My  esteemed  friend  Rabbi  Dr.  Frank  of  Cologne 
has  in  his  possession  a  Haggada,  admirably  illus- 
trated, an  heirloom  at  one  time  of  the  Van  Geldern 
family,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  it  was  out  of 
this  artistic  book  that  Heinrich  Heine  asked  the 
Mah  nishtannah,  the  traditional  question  of  the 
Seder. 

Heine  left  home  very  young,  and  everybody 
knows  that  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  merchant  at 
Frankfort,  and  that  his  uncle  Solomon's  kindness 
enabled  him  to  devote  himself  to  jurisprudence. 
But  this,  of  important  bearing  on  our  subject,  is  not 
a  matter  of  common  knowledge:  Always  and every- 
where',  especially  when  he  had  least  intercourse  with 
Jews,  Jewish  elements  appear  most  prominently  in 
Heine's  life. 

Collected  Works,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  227. 


346  HEINRICH    HEINE    AND   JUDAISM 

A  merry,  light-hearted  student,  he  arrived  in  Ber- 
lin in  1821.  A  curious  spectacle  is  presented  by  the 
Jewish  Berlin  of  the  day,  dominated  by  the  salons, 
and  the  women  whose  tact  and  scintillating  wit 
made  them  the  very  centre  of  general  society.  The 
traditions  of  Rahel  Levin,  Henriette  Herz,  and  other 
clever  women,  still  held  sway.  But  the  state  frus- 
trated every  attempt  to  introduce  reforms  into  Ju- 
daism. Two  great  parties  opposed  each  other  more 
implacably  than  ever,  the  one  clutching  the  old,  the 
other  yearning  for  the  new.  Out  of  the  breach,  sal- 
vation was  in  time  to  sprout  In  the  first  quarter  of 
our  century,  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  Jewish 
population  of  Berlin  embraced  the  ruling  faith. 
This  was  the  new,  seditious  element  with  which 
young  Heine  was  thrown.  His  interesting  person- 
ality attracted  general  notice.  All  circles  welcomed 
him.  The  salons  did  their  utmost  to  make  him  one 
of  their  votaries.  Romantic  student  clubs  at  Lut- 
ter's  and  Wegener's  wine-rooms  left  nothing  untried 
to  lure  him  to  their  nocturnal  carousals.  Even 
Hegel,  the  philosopher,  evinced  marked  interest  in 
him.  To  whose  allurements  does  he  yield?  Like 
his  great  ancestor,  he  goes  to  "  his  brethren  lan- 
guishing in  captivity."  Some  of  his  young  friends, 
Edward  Cans,  Leopold  Zunz,  and  Moses  Moser, 
had  formed  a  "  Society  for  Jewish  .Culture  and 
Science,"  with  Berlin  as  its  centre,  and  Heinrich 
Heine  became  one  of  its  most  active  members.  He 
taught  poor  Jewish  boys  from  Posen  several  hours  a 
week  in  the  school  established  by  the  society,  and  all 


HEINRICH    HEINE    AND   JUDAISM 


questions  that  came  up  interested  him.  Joseph  Leh- 
mann  took  pleasure  in  repeatedly  telling  how  se- 
riously Heine  applied  himself  to  a  review  which  he 
had  undertaken  to  write  on  the  compilation  of  a 
German  prayer-book  for  Jewish  women. 

To  the  Berlin  period  belongs  his  Ahnansor,  a 
dramatic  poem  which  has  suffered  the  most  contra- 
dictory criticism.  In  my  opinion,  it  has  usually 
been  misunderstood.  Almansor  is  intelligible 
only  if  regarded  from  a  Jewish  point  of  view,  and 
then  it  is  seen  to  be  the  hymn  of  vengeance  sung  by 
Judaism  oppressed.  Substitute  the  names  of  a 
converted  Berlin  banker  and  his  wife  for  "  Aly  " 
and  "  Suleima,"  Berlin  under  Frederick  William  III. 
for  "  Saragossa,"  the  Berlin  Thiergarten  for  the 
"  Forest,"  and  the  satire  stands  revealed.  The  fol- 
lowing passage  is  characteristic  of  the  whole  poem:1 

"  Go  not  to  Aly's  castle  !     Flee 
That  noxious  house  where  new  faith  breeds. 
With  honeyed  accents  there  thy  heart 
Is  wrenched  from  out  thy  bosom's  depths, 
A  snake  bestowed  on  thee  instead. 
Hot  drops  of  lead  on  thy  poor  head 
Are  poured,  and  nevermore  thy  brain 
From  madding  pain  shall  rid  itself. 
Another  name  thou  must  assume, 
That  if  thy  angel  warning  calls, 
And  calls  thee  by  thy  olden  name, 
He  call  in  vain." 

Such  were  Heine's  views  at  that  time,  and  with 
them  he  went  to  Gottingen.  There,  though  Jewish 

.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  13. 


348  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

society  was  entirely  lacking,  and  correspondence 
with  his  Berlin  friends  desultory,  his  Jewish  inter- 
ests grew  stronger  than  ever.  There,  inspired  by 
the  genius  of  Jewish  history,  he  composed  his  Rabbi 
von  Bacharach,  the  work  which,  by  his  own  confes- 
sion, he  nursed  with  unspeakable  love,  and  which, 
he  fondly  hoped,  would  "become  an  immortal 
book,  a  perpetual  lamp  in  the  dome  of  God." 
Again  Jewish  conversions,  a  burning  question  of 
the  day,  were  made  prominent.  Heine's  solution 
is  beyond  a  cavil  enlightened.  The  words  are  truly 
remarkable  with  which  Sarah,  the  beautiful  Jewess, 
declines  the  services  of  the  gallant  knight:1  "  Noble 
sir!  Would  you  be  my  knight,  then  you  must  meet 
nations  in  a  combat  in  which  small  praise  and  less 
honor  are  to  be  won.  And  would  you  be  rash 
enough  to  wear  my  colors,  then  you  must  sew  yel- 
low wheels  upon  your  mantle,  or  bind  a  blue-striped 
scarf  about  your  breast.  For  these  are  my  colors, 
the  colors  of  my  house,  named  Israel,  the  unhappy 
house  mocked  at  on  the  highways  and  the  byways 
by  the  children  of  fortune." 

Another  illustration  of  Heine's  views  at  that  time 
of  his  life,  and  with  those  views  he  one  day  went  to 
the  neighboring  town  of  Heiligenstadt — to  be  bap- 
tized. 

Who  can  sound  the  depths  of  a  poet's  soul?  Who 
can  divine  what  Heine's  thoughts,  what  his  hopes 
were,  when  he  took  this  step?  His  letters  and  con- 
fessions of  that  period  must  be  read  to  gain  an  idea 
1  Ibid.,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  257^: 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  349 

of  his  inner  world.  On  one  occasion  he  wrote  to 
Moser,  to  whom  he  laid  bare  his  most  intimate 
thoughts:1  "  Mentioning  Japan  reminds  me  to  rec- 
ommend to  you  Golovnin's  '  Journey  to  Japan.' 
Perhaps  I  may  send  you  a  poem  to-day  from  the 
Rabbi,  in  the  writing  of  which  I  unfortunately  have 
been  interrupted  again.  I  beg  that  you  speak  to 
nobody  about  this  poem,  or  about  what  I  tell  you 
of  my  private  affairs.  A  young  Spaniard,  at  heart 
a  Jew,  is  beguiled  to  baptism  by  the  arrogance  bred 
of  luxury.  He  sends  the  translation  of  an  Arabic 
poem  to  young  Yehuda  Abarbanel,  with  whom  he 
is  corresponding.  Perhaps  he  shrinks  from  directly 
confessing  to  his  friend  an  action  hardly  to  be  called 
admirable.  .  .  .  Pray  do  not  think  about  this." 
And  the  poem?  It  is  this: 

TO  EDOM 

"  Each  with  each  has  borne  in  patience 

Longer  than  a  thousand  year — 
Thou  dost  tolerate  my  breathing, 
/thy  ravings  calmly  hear. 

Sometimes  only,  in  the  darkness, 
Thou  didst  have  sensations  odd, 

And  thy  paws,  caressing,  gentle, 
Crimson  turned  with  my  rich  blood. 

Now  our  friendship  firmer  groweth, 
Daily  keeps  on  growing  straight. 

I  myself  incline  to  madness, 

Soon,  in  faith,  I'll  be  thy  mate." 

llbid.,  Vol.  VIIL,  p.  390^ 


35O  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

A  few  weeks  later  he  writes  to  Moser  in  a  still 
more  bitter  strain:  "  I  know  not  what  to  say.  Cohen 
assures  me  that  Gans  is  preaching  Christianity,  and 
trying  to  convert  the  children  of  Israel.  If  this  is 
conviction,  he  is  a  fool;  if  hypocrisy,  a  knave.  I 
shall  not  give  up  loving  him,  but  I  confess  that  I 
should  have  been  better  pleased  to  hear  that  Gans 
had  been  stealing  silver  spoons.  That  you,  dear 
Moser,  share  Gans's  opinions,  I  cannot  believe, 
though  Cohen  assures  me  of  it,  and  says  that  you 
told  him  so  yourself.  I  should  be  sorry,  if  my  own 
baptism  were  to  strike  you  more  favorably.  I  give 
you  my  word  of  honor — if  our  laws  allowed  stealing 
silver  spoons,  I  should  not  have  been  baptized." 
Again  he  writes  mournfully:  "As,  according  to 
Solon,  no  man  may  be  called  happy,  so  none  should 
be  called  honest,  before  his  death.  I  am  glad  that 
David  Friedlander  and  Bendavid  are  old,  and  will 
soon  die.  Then  we  shall  be  certain  of  them,  and 
the  reproach  of  having  had  not  a  single  immaculate 
representative  cannot  be  attached  to  our  time.  Par- 
don my  ill  humor.  It  is  directed  mainly  against  my- 
self." 

"  Upon  how  true  a  basis  the  myth  of  the  wander- 
ing Jew  rests! "  he  says  in  another  letter.  "  In  the 
lonely  wooded  valley,  the  mother  tells  her  children 
•the  grewsome  tale.  Terror-stricken  the  little  ones 
cower  close  to  the  hearth.  It  is  night  .  .  .  the 
postilion  blows  his  horn  .  .  .  Jew  traders  are 
journeying  to  the  fair  at  Leipsic.  We,  the  heroes 
of  the  legend,  are  not  aware  of  our  part  in  it.  The 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  35 1 

white  beard,  whose  tips  time  has  rejuvenated,  no 
barber  can  remove."  In  those  days  he  wrote  the 
following  poem,  published  posthumously:1 

TO  AN  APOSTATE 

"  Out  upon  youth's  holy  flame  ! 

Oh  !  how  quickly  it  burns  low  ! 
Now,  thy  heated  blood  grown  tame, 
Thou  agreest  to  love  thy  foe  ! 

And  thou  meekly  grovell'st  low 

At  the  cross  which  thou  didst  spurn  ; 

Which  not  many  weeks  ago, 

Thou  didst  wish  to  crush  and  burn. 

Fie  !  that  comes  from  books  untold — 

There  are  Schlegel,  Haller,  Burke- 
Yesterday  a  hero  bold, 

Thou  to-day  dost  scoundrel's  work." 

The  usual  explanation  of  Heine's  formal  adop- 
tion of  Christianity  is  that  he  wished  to  obtain  a 
government  position  in  Prussia,  and  make  himself 
independent  of  his  rich  uncle.  As  no  other  offers 
itself,  we  are  forced  to  accept  it  as  correct.  He  was 
fated  to  recognize  speedily  that  he  had  gained  noth- 
ing by  baptism.  A  few  weeks  after  settling  in  Ham- 
burg he  wrote:  "I  repent  me  of  having  been  bap- 
tized. I  cannot  see  that  I  have  bettered  my  position. 
On  the  contrary,  I  have  had  nothing  but  disap- 
pointment and  bad  luck."  Despite  his  baptism,  his 
enemies  called  him  "  the  Jew,"  and  at  heart  he  never 
did  become  a  Christian. 

d.,  Vol.  L,  p.  196. 


352  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

At  Hamburg,  in  those  days,  Heine  was  repeatedly 
drawn  into  the  conflict  between  reform  and  ortho- 
doxy, between  the  Temple  and  the  synagogue.  His 
uncle  Solomon  Heine  was  a  warm  supporter  of  the 
Temple,  but  Heine,  with  characteristic  inconsistency, 
admired  the  old  rigorous  rabbinical  system  more 
than  the  modern  reform  movement,  which  often 
called  forth  his  ridicule.  Yet,  at  bottom,  his  inter- 
est in  the  latter  was  strong,  as  it  continued  to  be  also 
in  the  Berlin  educational  society,  and  its  "Journal 
for  the  Science  of  Judaism,"  of  which,  however,  only 
three  numbers  were  issued.  He  once  wrote  from 
Hamburg  to  his  friend  Moser:  "Last  Saturday  I 
was  at  the  Temple,  and  had  the  pleasure  with  my 
own  ears  to  hear  Dr.  Salomon  rail  against  baptized 
Jews,  and  insinuate  that  they  are  tempted  to  become 
faithless  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers  only  by  the 
hope  of  preferment  I  assure  you,  the  sermon  was 
good,  and  some  day  I  intend  to  call  upon  the  man. 
Cohen  is  doing  the  generous  thing  by  me.  I  take 
my  Shabbes  dinner  with  him;  he  heaps  fiery  Kugel 
upon  my  head,  and  contritely  I  eat  the  sacred  na- 
tional dish,  which  has  done  more  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  Judaism  than  all  three  numbers  of  the  Jour- 
nal. To  be  sure,  it  has  had  a  better  sale.  If  I  had 
time,  I  would  write  a  pretty  little  Jewish  letter  to 
Mrs.  Zunz.  I  am  getting  to  be  a  thoroughbred 
Christian;  I  am  sponging  on  the  rich  Jews." 

They  who  find  nothing  but  jest  in  this  letter,  do 
not  understand  Heine.  A  bitter  strain  of  disgust, 
of  unsparing  self-denunciation,  runs  through  it — the 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  353 

feelings  that  dictate  the  jests  and  accusations  of  his 
Reisebilder.  This  was  the  period  of  Heine's  best 
creations :  for  as  such  his  "  Book  of  Songs,"  Buck 
der  Lieder,  and  his  Reisebilder  must  be  considered. 
With  a  sudden  bound  he  leapt  into  greatness  and 
popularity. 

The  reader  may  ask  me  to  point  out  in  these 
works  the  features  to  be  taken  as  the  expression  of 
the  genius  of  the  Jewish  race.  To  understand  our 
poet,  we  must  keep  in  mind  that  Heinrich  Heine 
was  a  Jew  born  in  the  days  of  romanticism  in  a  town 
on  the  Rhine.  His  intellect  and  his  sensuousness, 
of  Jewish  origin,  were  wedded  with  Rhenish  fancy 
and  blitheness,  and  over  these  qualities  the  pale 
moonshine  of  romanticism  shed  its  glamour. 

The  most  noteworthy  characteristic  of  his  writings, 
prose  and  verse,  is  his  extraordinary  subjectivity, 
pushing  the  poet's  ego  into  the  foreground.  With 
light,  graceful  touch,  he  demonstrates  the  possibility 
of  unrestrained  self-expression  in  an  artistic  guise. 
The  boldness  and  energy  with  which  "  he  gave 
voice  to  his  hidden  self"  were  so  novel,  so  surpris- 
ing, that  his  melodies  at  once  awoke  an  echo.  This 
subjectivity  is  his  Jewish  birthright.  It  is  Israel's 
ingrained  combativeness,  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years  the  genius  of  its  literature,  which  throughout 
reveals  a  predilection  for  abrupt  contrasts,  and  is 
studded  with  unmistakable  expressions  of  strong 
individuality.  By  virtue  of  his  subjectivity,  which 
never  permits  him  to  surrender  himself  uncondi- 
tionally, the  Jew  establishes  a  connection  between 


354  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND    JUDAISM 

his  ego  and  whatever  subject  he  treats  of.  "  He 
does  not  sink  his  own  identity,  and  lose  himself  in 
the  depths  of  the  cosmos,  nor  roam  hither  and 
thither  in  the  limitless  space  of  the  world  of  thought. 
He  dives  down  to  search  for  pearls  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  or  rises  aloft  to  gain  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
whole.  The  world  encloses  him  as  the  works  of  a 
clock  are  held  in  a  case.  His  ego  is  the  hammer, 
and  there  is  no  sound  unless,  swinging  rhythmically, 
itself  touches  the  sides,  now  softly,  now  boldly." 
Not  content  to  yield  to  an  authority  which  would 
suppress  his  freedom  of  action,  he  traverses  the 
world,  and  compels  it  to  promote  the  development 
of  his  energetic  nature.  To  these  peculiarities  of 
his  race  Heine  fell  heir — to  the  generous  traits 
growing  out  of  marked  individuality,  its  grooves 
deepened  by  a  thousand  years  of  martyrdom,  as  well 
as  to  the  petty  faults  following  in  the  wake  of  ex- 
cessive self-consciousness,  which  have  furnished 
adversaries  of  the  Jews  with  texts  and  weapons. 

This  subjectivity,  traceable  in  his  language  and 
in  his  ancient  literature,  it  is  that  unfits  the  Jew  for 
objective,  philosophic  investigation.  It  is,  more- 
over, responsible  for  that  energetic  self-assertiveness 
for  which  the  Aramaean  language  has  coined  the 
word  chutspa,  only  partially  rendered  by  arrogance. 
Possibly  it  is  the  root  of  another  quality  which 
Heine  owes  to  his  Jewish  extraction — his  wit 
Heine's  scintillations  are  composed  of  a  number  of 
elements — of  English  humor,  French  sparkle,  Ger- 
man irony,  and  Jewish  wit,  all  of  which,  saving  the 


HEINRICH    HEINE    AND   JUDAISM  355 

last,  have  been  analyzed  by  the  critics.  Proneness 
to  censure,  to  criticism,  and  discussion,  is  the  con- 
comitant of  keen  intellect  given  to  scrutiny  and 
analysis.  From  the  buoyancy  of  the  Jewish  dispo- 
sition, and  out  of  the  force  of  Jewish  subjectivity, 
arose  Jewish  wit,  whose  first  manifestations  can  be 
traced  in  the  Talmud  and  the  Midrash.  Its  appeals 
are  directed  to  both  fancy  and  heart.  It  delights 
in  antithesis,  and,  as  was  said  above,  is  intimately 
connected  with  Jewish  subjectivity.  Its  distinguish- 
ing characteristic  is  the  desire  to  have  its  superiority 
acknowledged  without  wounding  the  feelings  of  the 
sensitive,  and  an  explanation  of  its  peculiarity  can 
be  found  in  the  sad  fate  of  the  Jews.  The  heroes  of 
Shakespere's  tragedies  are  full  of  irony.  Frenzy  at 
its  maddest  pitch  breaks  out  into  merry  witticisms 
and  scornful  laughter.  So  it  was  with  the  Jews. 
The  waves  of  oppression,  forever  dashing  over  them, 
strung  their  nerves  to  the  point  of  reaction.  The 
world  was  closed  to  them  in  hostility.  There  was 
nothing  for  them  to  do  but  laugh — laugh  with 
forced  merriment  from  behind  prison  bars,  and  out 
of  the  depths  of  their  heartrending  resignation. 
Complaints  it  was  possible  to  suppress,  but  no  one 
could  forbid  their  laughter,  ghastly  though  it  was. 
M.  G.  Saphir,  one  of  the  best  exponents  of  Jewish 
wit,  justly  said:  "The  Jews  seized  the  weapon  of 
wit,  since  they  were  interdicted  the  use  of  every 
other  sort  of  weapon."  Whatever  humdrum  life 
during  the  middle  ages  offered  them,  had  to  submit 
to  the  scalpel  of  their  wit. 


HE1NRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

As  a  rule,  Jewish  wit  springs  from  a  lively  appre- 
ciation of  what  is  ingenious.  A  serious  beginning 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  takes  a  merry,  jocose 
turn,  producing  in  Heine's  elegiac  passages  the  dis- 
cordant endings  so  shocking  to  sensitive  natures. 
But  it  is  an  injustice  to  the  poet  to  attribute  these 
rapid  transitions  to  an  artist's  vain  fancy.  His  satire 
is  directed  against  the  ideals  of  his  generation,  not 
against  the  ideal.  Harsh,  discordant  notes  do  not 
express  the  poet's  real  disposition.  They  are  ex- 
aggerated, romantic  feeling,  for  which  he  himself, 
led  by  an  instinctively  pure  conception  of  the  good 
and  the  beautiful,  which  is  opposed  alike  to  sickly 
sentimentality  and  jarring  dissonance,  sought  the 
outlet  of  irony. 

Heine's  humor,  as  I  intimated  above,  springs  from 
his  recognition  of  the  tragedy  of  life.  It  is  an  ex- 
pression of  the  irreconcilable  difference  between  the 
real  and  the  ideal,  of  the  perception  that  the  world, 
despite  its  grandeur  and  its  beauty,  is  a  world  of 
folly  and  contradictions;  that  whatever  exists  and  is 
formed,  bears  within  itself  the  germ  of  death  and 
corruption;  that  the  Lord  of  all  creation  himself  is 
but  the  shuttlecock  of  irresistible,  absolute  force, 
compelling  the  unconditional  surrender  of  subject 
and  object. 

Humor,  then,  grows  out  of  the  contemplation  of 
the  tragedy  of  life.  But  it  does  not  stop  there.  If 
the  world  is  so  pitiful,  so  fragile,  it  is  not  worth  a 
tear,  not  worth  hatred,  or  contempt.  The  only 
sensible  course  is  to  accept  it  as  it  is,  as  a  nothing, 


HEINRICH    HEINE  AND   JUDAISM  357 

an  absolute  contradiction,  calling  forth  ridicule.  At 
this  point,  a  sense  of  tragedy  is  transformed  into 
demoniac  glee.  No  more  is  this  a  permanent  state. 
The  humorist  is  too  impulsive  to  accept  it  as 
final.  Moreover,  he  feels  that  with  the  world  he 
has  annihilated  himself.  In  the  phantom  realm  into 
which  he  has  turned  the  world,  his  laughter  reverb- 
erates with  ghostlike  hollowness.  Recognizing  that 
the  world  meant  more  to  him  than  he  was  willing  to 
admit,  and  that  apart  from  it  he  has  no  being,  he 
again  yields  to  it,  and  embraces  it  with  increased 
passion  and  ardor.  But  scarcely  has  the  return  been 
effected,  scarcely  has  he  begun  to  realize  the  beau- 
ties and  perfections  of  the  world,  when  sadness,  suf- 
fering, pain,  and  torture,  obtrude  themselves,  and 
the  old  overwhelming  sense  of  life's  tragedy  takes 
possession  of  him.  This  train  of  thought,  plainly 
discernible  in  Heine^s  poems,  he  also  owes  to  his 
descent  A  mind  given  to  such  speculations  natur- 
ally seeks  poetic  solace  in  Weltschmerz,  which,  as 
everybody  knows,  is  still  another  heirloom  of  his 
race. 

These  are  the  most  important  characteristics,  some 
admirable,  some  reprehensible,  which  Heine  has  de- 
rived from  his  race,  and  they  are  the  very  ones  that 
raised  opponents  against  him,  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting and  prominent  among  them  being  the 
German  philosopher  Arthur  Schopenhauer.  His 
two  opinions  on  Heine,  expressed  at  almost  the 
same  time,  are  typical  of  the  antagonism  aroused 
by  the  poet.  In  his  book,  "  The  World  as  Will  and 


HE1NRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

Idea,''1  he  writes :  "  Heine  is  a  true  humorist  in  his 
Romanzero.  Back  of  all  his  quips  and  gibes  lies 
deep  seriousness,  ashamed  to  speak  out  frankly." 
At  the  same  time  he  says  in  his  journal,  published 
posthumously:  "Although  a  buffoon,  Heine  has 
genius,  and  the  distinguishing  mark  of  genius,  in- 
genuousness. On  close  examination,  however,  his 
ingenuousness  turns  out  to  have  its  root  in  Jewish 
shamelessness;  for  he,  too,  belongs  to  the  nation  of 
which  Riemer  says  that  it  knows  neither  shame  nor 
grief," 

The  contradiction  between  the  two  judgments  is 
too  obvious  to  need  explanation;  it  is  an  interesting 
illustration  of  the  common  experience  that  critics 
go  astray  when  dealing  with  Heine, 


II 

When,  as  Heine  puts  it,  "  a  great  hand  solicitous- 
ly beckoned,"  he  left  his  German  fatherland  in  his 
prime,  and  went  to  Paris.  In  its  sociable  atmos- 
phere, he  felt  more  comfortable,  more  free,  than  in 
his  own  home,  where  the  Jew,  the  author,  the 
liberal,  had  encountered  only  prejudices.  The  re- 
moval to  Paris  was  an  inauspicious  change  for  the 
poet,  and  that  he  remained  there  until  his  end  was 
still  less  calculated  to  redound  to  his  good  fortune. 
He  gave  much  to  France,  and  Paris  did  little  during 

'Vol.  II.,  p.  no.  Cmp.  Frauenstadt,  A.  Schopenhauer,  p. 
467^ 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  359 

his  life  to  pay  off  the  debt.  The  charm  exercised 
upon  every  stranger  by  Babylon  on  the  Seine, 
wrought  havoc  in  his  character  and  his  work,  and 
gives  us  the  sole  criterion  for  the  rest  of  his  days. 
Yet,  despite  his  devotion  to  Paris,  home-sickness, 
yearning  for  Germany,  was  henceforth  the  domi- 
nant note  of  his  works.  At  that  time  Heine  con- 
sidered Judaism  "  a  long  lost  cause."  Of  the  God  of 
Judaism,  the  philosophical  demonstrations  of  Hegel 
and  his  disciples  had  robbed  him;  his  knowledge  ot 
doctrinal  Judaism  was  a  minimum;  and  his  keen 
race-feeling,  his  historical  instinct,  was  forced  into 
the  background  by  other  sympathies  and  antipathies. 
He  was  at  that  time  harping  upon  the  long  cher- 
ished idea  that  men  can  be  divided  into  Hellenists 
and  Nazarenes.  Himself,  for  instance,  he  looked 
upon  as  a  well-fed  Hellenist,  while  Borne  was  a 
Nazarene,  an  ascetic.  It  is  interesting,  and  bears 
upon  our  subject,  that  most  of  the  verdicts,  views, 
and  witticisms  which  Heine  fathers  upon  Borne  in 
the  famous  imaginary  conversation  in  the  Frankfort 
Judengasse,  might  have  been  uttered  by  Heine  him- 
self. In  fact,  many  of  them  are  repeated,  partly 
in  the  same  or  in  similar  words,  in  the  jottings 
found  after  his  death. 

This  conversation  is  represented  as  having  taken 
place  during  the  Feast  of  Chanukka.  Heine  who, 
as  said  above,  took  pleasure  at  that  time  in  imper- 
sonating a  Hellenist,  gets  Borne  to  explain  to  him 
that  this  feast  was  instituted  to  commemorate  the 
victory  of  the  valiant  Maccabees  over  the  king  of 


360  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

Syria.  After  expatiating  on  the  heroism  of  the 
Maccabees,  and  the  cowardice  of  modern  Jews, 
Borne  says:1 

"  Baptism  is  the  order  of  the  day  among  the 
wealthy  Jews.  The  evangel  vainly  announced  to 
the  poor  of  Judaea  now  flourishes  among  the  rich. 
Its  acceptance  is  self-deception,  if  not  a  lie,  and  as 
hypocritical  Christianity  contrasts  sharply  with  the 
old  Adam,  who  will  crop  out,  these  people  lay  them- 
selves open  to  unsparing  ridicule. — In  the  streets  of 
Berlin  I  saw  former  daughters  of  Israel  wear 
crosses  about  their  necks  longer  than  their  noses, 
reaching  to  their  very  waists.  They  carried  evan- 
gelical prayer  books,  and  were  discussing  the  mag- 
nificent sermon  just  heard  at  Trinity  church.  One 
asked  the  ether  where  she  had  gone  to  communion, 
and  all  the  while  their  breath  smelt.  Still  more 
disgusting  was  the  sight  of  dirty,  bearded,  malo- 
dorous Polish  Jews,  hailing  from  Polish  sewers, 
saved  for  heaven  by  the  Berlin  Society  for  the  Con- 
version of  Jews,  and  in  turn  preaching  Christianity 
in  their  slovenly  jargon.  Such  Polish  vermin  should 
certainly  be  baptized  with  cologne  instead  of  ordi- 
nary water." 

This  is  to  be  taken  as  an  expression  of  Heine's 
own  feelings,  which  come  out  plainly,  when,  "  per- 
sistently loyal  to  Jewish  customs,"  he  eats,  "  with 
good  appetite,  yes,  with  enthusiasm,  with  devotion, 
with  conviction,"  Shalet,  the  famous  Jewish  dish, 
about  which  he  says:  "This  dish  is  delicious,  and  it 
1  Collected  Works,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  255^. 


HEINRICH    HEINE  AND  JUDAISM  36! 

is  a  subject  for  painful  regret  that  the  Church,  in- 
debted to  Judaism  for  so  much  that  is  good,  has 
failed  to  introduce  Shalet.  This  should  be  her  ob- 
ject in  the  future.  If  ever  she  falls  on  evil  times, 
if  ever  her  most  sacred  symbols  lose  their  virtue, 
then  the  Church  will  resort  to  Shalet,  and  the  faith- 
less peoples  will  crowd  into  her  arms  with  renewed 
appetite.  At  all  events  the  Jews  will  then  join  the 
Church  from  conviction,  for  it  is  clear  that  it  is  only 
Shalet  that  keeps  them  in  the  old  covenant.  Borne 
assures  me  that  renegades  who  have  accepted  the 
new  dispensation  feel  a  sort  of  home-sickness  for  the 
synagogue  when  they  but  smell  Shalet,  so  that 
Shalet  may  be  called  the  Jewish  ranz  desvaches" 

Heine  forgot  that  in  another  place  he  had  uttered 
this  witticism  in  his  own  name.  He  long  continued 
to  take  peculiar  pleasure  in  his  dogmatic  division  of 
humanity  into  two  classes,  the  lean  and  the  fat,  or 
rather,  the  class  that  continually  gets  thinner,  and 
the  class  which,  beginning  with  modest  dimensions, 
gradually  attains  to  corpulency.  Only  too  soon  the 
poet  was  made  to  understand  the  radical  falseness  of 
his  definition.  A  cold  February  morning  of  1848 
brought  him  a  realizing  sense  of  his  fatal  mistake. 
Sick  and  weary,  the  poet  was  taking  his  last  walk 
on  the  boulevards,  while  the  mob  of  the  revolution 
surged  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  Half  blind,  half 
paralyzed,  leaning  heavily  on  his  cane,  he  sought  to 
extricate  himself  from  the  clamorous  crowd,  and 
finally  found  refuge  in  the  Louvre,  almost  empty 
during  the  days  of  excitement.  With  difficulty  he 


362  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

dragged  himself  to  the  hall  of  the  gods  and  god- 
desses of  antiquity,  and  suddenly  came  face  to  face 
with  the  ideal  of  beauty,  the  smiling,  witching  Venus 
of  Milo,  whose  charms  have  defied  time  and  mutila- 
tion. Surprised,  moved,  almost  terrified,  he  reeled 
to  a  chair,  tears,  hot  and  bitter,  coursing  down  his 
cheeks.  A  smile  was  hovering  on  the  beautiful  lips 
of  the  goddess,  parted  as  if  by  living  breath,  and  at 
her  feet  a  luckless  victim  was  writhing.  A  single 
moment  revealed  a  world  of  misery.  Driven  by  a 
consciousness  of  his  fate,  Heine  wrote  in  his  "  Con- 
fessions ":  "  In  May  of  last  year  I  was  forced  to  take 
to  my  bed,  and  since  then  I  have  not  risen.  I  con- 
fess frankly  that  meanwhile  a  great  change  has  taken 
place  in  me.  I  no  longer  am  a  fat  Hellenist,  the 
freest  man  since  Goethe,  a  jolly,  somewhat  corpu- 
lent Hellenist,  with  a  contemptuous  smile  for  lean 
Jews — I  am  only  a  poor  Jew,  sick  unto  death,  a 
picture  of  gaunt  misery,  an  unhappy  being." 

This  startling  change  was  coincident  with  the  first 
symptoms  of  his  disease,  and  kept  pace  with  it.  The 
pent-up  forces  of  faith  pressed  to  his  bedside;  re- 
ligious conversations,  readings  from  the  Bible,  rem- 
iniscences of  his  youth,  of  his  Jewish  friends,  filled 
his  time  almost  entirely.  Alfred  Meissner  has 
culled  many  interesting  data  from  his  conversations 
with  the  poet.  For  instance,  on  one  occasion 
Heine  breaks  out  with:1 

"  Queer  people  this!  Downtrodden  for  thous- 
ands of  years,  weeping  always,  suffering  always, 

'Alfred  Meissner,  Heinrich  Heine,  p. 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  363 

abandoned  always  by  its  God,  yet  clinging  to  Him 
tenaciously,  loyally,  as  no  other  under  the  sun.  Oh, 
if  martyrdom,  patience,  and  faith  in  despite  of  trial, 
can  confer  a  patent  of  nobility,  then  this  people  is 
noble  beyond  many  another. — It  would  have  been 
absurd  and  petty,  if,  as  people  accuse  me,  I  had  been 
ashamed  of  being  a  Jew.  Yet  it  were  equally  lu- 
dicrous for  me  to  call  myself  a  Jew. — As  I  instinct- 
ively hold  up  to  unending  scorn  whatever  is  evil, 
timeworn,  absurd,  false,  and  ludicrous,  so  my  nature 
leads  me  to  appreciate  the  sublime,  to  admire  what 
is  great,  and  to  extol  every  living  force:"  Heine 
had  spoken  so  much  with  deep  earnestness.  Jest- 
ingly he  added:  "  Dear  friend,  if  little  Weill  should 
visit  us,  you  shall  have  another  evidence  of  my  rev- 
erence for  hoary  Mosaism.  Weill  formerly  was  pre- 
centor at  the  synagogue.  He  has  a  ringing  tenor, 
and  chants  Judah's  desert  songs  according  to  the 
old  traditions,  ranging  from  the  simple  monotone 
to  the  exuberance  of  Old  Testament  cadences.  My 
wife,  who  has  not  the  slightest  suspicion  that  I  am  a 
Jew,  is  not  a  little  astonished  by  this  peculiar  musi- 
cal wail,  this  trilling  and  cadencing.  When  Weill 
sang  for  the  first  time,  Minka,  the  poodle,  crawled 
into  hiding  under  the  sofa,  and  Cocotte,  the  polly, 
made  an  attempt  to  throttle  himself  between  the 
bars  of  his  cage.  '  M.  Weill,  M.  Weill!'  Mathilde 
cried  terror-stricken,  '  pray  do  not  carry  the  joke  too 
far.'  But  Weill  continued,  and  the  dear  girl  turned 
to  me,  and  asked  imploringly :  '  Henri,  pray  tell  me 
what  sort  of  songs,  these  are.'  'They  are  our  Ger- 


364  HEINR1CH    HEINE  AND  JUDAISM 

man  folk  songs/  said  I,  and  I  have  obstinately 
stuck  to  that  explanation." 

Meissner  reports  an  amusing  conversation  with 
Madame  Mathilda  about  the  friends  of  the  family, 
whom  the  former  by  their  peculiarities  recognized 
as  Jews.  "What!"  cried  Mathilda,  "Jews?  They 
are  Jews?"  "  Of  course,  Alexander  Weill  is  a  Jew, 
he  told  me  so  himself; — why  he  was  going  to  be  a 
rabbi."  "  But  the  rest,  all  the  rest?  For  instance, 
there  is  Abeles,  the  name  sounds  so  thoroughly 
German."  "  Rather  say  it  sounds  Greek,"  answered 
Meissner.  "  Yet  I  venture  to  insist  that  our  friend 
Abeles  has  as  little  German  as  Greek  blood  in  his 
veins."  "  Very  well !  But  Jeiteles— Kalisch— Barn- 
berg — Are  they,  too  .  .  .  O  no,  you  are  mis- 
taken, not  one  is  a  Jew,"  cried  Mathilde.  "  You 
will  never  make  me  believe  that.  Presently  you  will 
make  out  Cohh  to  be  a  Jew.  But  Cohn  is  related  to 
Heine,  and  Heine  is  a  Protestant."  So  Meissner 
found  out  that  Heine  had  never  told  his  wife  any- 
thing about  his  descent.  He  gravely  answered: 
"  You  are  right.  With  regard  to  Cohn  I  was  of 
course  mistaken.  Cohn  is  certainly  not  a  Jew." 

These  are  mere  jests.  In  point  of  fact,  his  friends' 
reports  on  the  religious  attitude  of  the  Heine  of  that 
period  are  of  the  utmost  interest.  He  once  said  to 
Ludwig  Kalisch,  who  had  told  him  that  the  world 
was  all  agog  over  his  conversion  i1  "  I  do  not  make 
a  secret  of  my  Jewish  allegiance,  to  which  I  have 
not  returned,  because  I  never  abjured  it.  I  was  not 

1  Ludwig  Kalisch,  Pariser  Skizzen,  p.  334. 


HEINRICH    HEINE    AND   JUDAISM  365 

baptized  from  aversion  to  Judaism,  and  my  profes- 
sions of  atheism  were  never  serious.  My  former 
friends,  the  Hegelians,  have  turned  out  scamps. 
Human  misery  is  too  great  for  men  to  do  without 
faith." 

The  completest  picture  of  the  transformation, 
truer  than  any  given  in  letters,  reports,  or  reminis- 
cences, is  in  his  last  two  productions,  the  Roman- 
zero  and  the  "  Confessions."  There  can  be  no  more 
explicit  description  of  the  poet's  conversion  than  is 
contained  in  these  "  confessions."  During  his  sick- 
ness he  sought  a  palliative  for  his  pains — in  the 
Bible.  With  a  melancholy  smile  his  mind  reverted 
to  the  memories  of  his  youth,  to  the  heroism  which 
is  the  underlying  principle  of  Judaism.  The  Psalm- 
ist's consolations,  the  elevating  principles  laid  down 
in  the  Pentateuch,  exerted  a  powerful  attraction 
upon  him,  and  filled  his  soul  with  exalted  thoughts, 
shaped  into  words  in  the  "  Confessions "  \  "  For- 
merly I  felt  little  affection  for  Moses,  probably  be- 
cause the  Hellenic  spirit  was  dominant  within  me, 
and  I  could  not  pardon  the  Jewish  lawgiver  for  his 
intolerance  of  images,  and  every  sort  of  plastic  rep- 
resentation. I  failed  to  see  that  despite  his  hostile 
attitude  to  art,  Moses  was  himself  a  great  artist, 
gifted  with  the  true  artist's  spirit.  Only  in  him,  as 
in  his  Egyptian  neighbors,  the  artistic  instinct  was 
exercised  solely  upon  the  colossal  and  the  indestruc- 
tible. But  unlike  the  Egyptians  he  did  not  shape 
his  works  of  art  out  of  brick  or  granite.  His  pyra- 
1  Collected  Works,  Vol.  VII.,  473^ 


366  HEINR1CH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

mids  were  built  of  men,  his  obelisks  hewn  out  of 
human  material.  A  feeble  race  of  shepherds  he 
transformed  into  a  people  bidding  defiance  to  the 
centuries — a  great,  eternal,  holy  people,  God's  peo- 
ple, an  exemplar  to  all  other  peoples,  the  prototype 
of  mankind:  he  created  Israel.  With  greater  justice 
than  the  Roman  poet  could  this  artist,  the  son  of 
Amram  and  Jochebed  the  midwife,  boast  of  having 
erected  a  monument  more  enduring  than  brass. 

As  for  the  artist,  so  I  lacked  reverence  for  his 
work,  the  Jews,  doubtless  on  account  of  my  Greek 
predilections,  antagonistic  to  Judaic  asceticism.  My 
love  for  Hellas  has  since  declined.  Now  I  under- 
stand that  the  Greeks  were  only  beautiful  youths, 
while  the  Jews  have  always  been  men,  powerful,  in- 
flexible men,  not  only  in  early  times,  to-day,  too,  in 
spite  of  eighteen  hundred  years  of  persecution  and 
misery.  I  have  learnt  to  appreciate  them,  and  were 
pride  of  birth  not  absurd  in  a  champion  of  the  revo- 
lution and  its  democratic  principles,  the  writer  of 
these  leaflets  would  boast  that  his  ancestors  be- 
longed to  the  noble  house  of  Israel,  that  he  is  a 
descendant  of  those  martyrs  to  whom  the  world 
owes  God  and  morality,  and  who  have  fought  and 
bled  on  every  battlefield  of  thought." 

In  view  of  such  avowals,  Heine's  return  to  Juda- 
ism is  an  indubitable  fact,  and  when  one  of  his 
friends  anxiously  inquired  about  his  relation  to  God, 
he  could  well  answer  with  a  smile :  Dicu  me  pardon- 
nera  ;  c'est  son  metier.  In  those  days  Heine  made 
his  will,  his  true,  genuine  will,  to  have  been  the 


HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM  367 

/ 

first  to  publish  which  the  present  writer  will  always 
consider  the  distinction  of  his  life.  The  introduc- 
tion reads :  "  I  die  in  the  belief  in  one  God,  Creator 
of  heaven  and  earth,  whose  mercy  I  supplicate  in 
behalf  of  my  immortal  soul.  I  regret  that  in  my 
writings  I  sometimes  spoke  of  sacred  things  with 
levity,  due  not  so  much  to  my  own  inclination,  as 
to  the  spirit  of  my  age.  If  unwittingly  I  have  of- 
fended against  good  usage  and  morality,  which  con- 
stitute the  true  essence  of  all  monotheistic  religions, 
may  God  and  men  forgive  me." 

With  this  confession  on  his  lips  Heine  passed 
away,  dying  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  his  very  bier 
haunted  by  the  spirits  of  antagonism  and  contradic- 
tion. .  .  . 

"  Greek  joy  in  life,  belief  in  God  of  Jew, 
And  twining  in  and  out  like  arabesques, 
Ivy  tendrils  gently  clasp  the' two." 

In  Heine's  character,  certainly,  there  were  sharp 
contrasts.  Now  we  behold  him  a  Jew,  now  a  Chris- 
tian, now  a  Hellenist,  now  a  romanticist;  to-day 
laughing,  to-morrow  weeping,  to-day  the  prophet 
of  the  modern  era,  to-morrow  the  champion  of  tra- 
dition. Who  knows  the  man?  Yet  who  that  steps 
within  the  charmed  circle  of  his  life  can  resist  the 
temptation  to  grapple  with  the  enigma? 

One  of  the  best  known  of  his  poems  is  the  plaint : 

"  Mass  for  me  will  not  be  chanted, 

Kadosh  not  be  said, 
Naught  be  sung,  and  naught  recited, 
Round  my  dying  bed." 


368  HEINRICH    HEINE   AND   JUDAISM 

The  poet's  prophecy  has  not  come  true.  As  this 
tribute  has  in  spirit  been  laid  upon  his  grave,  so 
always  thousands  will  devote  kindly  thought  to  him, 
recalling  in  gentleness  how  he  struggled  and  suf- 
fered, wrestled  and  aspired ;  how,  at  the  dawn  of  the 
new  day,  enthusiastically  proclaimed  by  him,  his 
spirit  fled  aloft  to  regions  where  doubts  are  set  at 
rest,  hopes  fulfilled,  and  visions  made  reality. 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE1 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Let  the  emotions 
aroused  by  the  notes  of  the  great  masters,  now  dy- 
ing away  upon  the  air,  continue  to  reverberate  in 
your  souls.  More  forcibly  and  more  eloquently 
than  my  weak  words,  they  express  the  thoughts  and 
the  feelings  appropriate  to  this  solemn  occasion. 

A  festival  like  ours  has  rarely  been  celebrated  in 
Israel.  For  nearly  two  thousand  years  the  muse  of 
Jewish  melody  was  silent;  during  the  whole  of  that 
period,  a  new  chord  was  but  seldom  won  from  the 
unused  lyre.  The  Talmud2  has  a  quaint  tale  on  the 
subject:  Higros  the  Levite  living  at  the  time  of  the 
decadence  of  Israel's  nationality,  was  the  last  skilled 
musician,  and  he  refused  to  teach  his  art.  When  he 
sang  his  exquisite  melodies,  touching  his  mouth 
with  his  thumb,  and  striking  the  strings  with  his 
fingers,  it  is  said  that  his  priestly  mates,  transported 
by  the  magic  power  of  his  art,  fell  prostrate,  and 
wept.  Under  the  Oriental  trappings  of  this  tale  is 
concealed  regretful  anguish  over  the  decay  of  old 
Hebrew  song.  The  altar  at  Jerusalem  was  demol- 
ished, and  the  songs  of  Zion,  erst  sung  by  the  Lev- 
itical  choirs  under  the  leadership  of  the  Korachides, 

1  Address  at  the  celebration  of  Herr  Lewandowski's  fiftieth 
anniversary  as  director  of  music. 

2  Yoma,  38*. 

369 


3/O  THE   MUSIC   OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

were  heard  no  longer.  The  silence  was  unbroken, 
until,  in  our  day,  a  band  of  gifted  men  disengaged 
the  old  harps  from  the  willows,  and  once  more  lured 
the  ancient  melodies  from  their  quavering  strings. 

Towering  head  and  shoulders  above  most  of  the 
group  of  (restorers  is  he  in  whose  honor  we  are  as- 
sembled, to  whom  we  bring  greeting  and  congratu- 
lation. To  you,  then,  Herr  Lewandowski,  I  address 
myself  to  offer  you  the  deep-felt  gratitude  and  the 
cordial  wishes  of  your  friends,  of  the  Berlin  commu- 
nity, and,  I  may  add,  of  the  whole  of  Israel.  You 
were  appointed  for  large  tasks — large  tasks  have 
you  successfully  performed.  At  a  time  when  Juda- 
ism was  at  a  low  ebb,  only  scarcely  discernible  indi- 
cations promising  a  brighter  future,  Providence  sent 
you  to  occupy  a  guide's  position  in  the  most  import- 
ant, the  largest,  and  the  most  intelligent  Jewish 
community  of  Germany.  For  fifty  years  your  zeal, 
your  diligence,  your  faithfulness,  your  devotion, 
your  affectionate  reverence  for  our  past,  and  your 
exalted  gifts,  have  graced  the  office.  Were  testi- 
mony unto  your  gifts  and  character  needed,  it  would 
be  given  by  this  day's  celebration,  proving,  as  it 
does,  that  your  brethren  have  understood  the  under- 
lying thought  of  your  activities,  have  grasped  their 
bearing  upon  Jewish  development,  and  have  appre- 
ciated their  influence. 

You  have  remodelled  the  divine  service  of  the 
Jewish  synagogue,  superadding  elements  of  devo- 
tion and  sacredness.  Under  your  touch  old  lays 
have  clothed  themselves  with  a  modern  garb — a  new 


THE   MUSIC    OF   THE   SYNAGOGUE  3/1 

rhythm  vibrates  through  our  historic  melodies, 
keener  strength  in  the  familiar  words,  heightened 
dignity  in  the  cherished  songs.  Two  generations 
and  all  parts  of  the  world  have  hearkened  to  .your 
harmonies,  responding  to  them  with  tears  of  joy  or 
sorrow,  with  feelings  stirred  from  the  recesses  of  the 
heart.  To  your  music  have  listened  entranced  the 
boy  and  the  girl  on  the  day  of  declaring  their  al- 
legiance to  the  covenant  of  the  fathers;  the  youth 
and  the  maiden  in  life's  most  solemn  hour ;  men  and 
women  in  all  the  sacred  moments  of  the  year,  on 
days  of  mourning  and  of  festivity. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  when  you  celebrated 
the  end  of  twenty-five  years  of  useful  work,  a  better 
man  stood  here,  and  spoke  to  you.  Leopold  Zunz 
on  that  occasion  said  to  you :  "  Old  thoughts  have 
been  transformed  by  you  into  modern  emotions, 
and  long  stored  words  seasoned  with  your  melodies 
have  made  delicious  food." 

This  is  your  share  in  the  revival  of  Jewish  poesy, 
and  what  you  have  resuscitated,  and  remodelled, 
and  re-created,  will  endure,  echoing  and  re-echoing 
through  all  the  lands.  In  you  Higros  the  Levite 
has  been  restored  to  us.  But  your  melodies  will 
never  sink  into  oblivious  silence.  They  have  been 
carried  by  an  honorable  body  of  disciples  to  distant 
lands,  beyond  the  ocean,  to  communities  in  the  re- 
mote countries  of  civilization.  Thus  they  have  be- 
come the  perpetual  inheritance  of  the  congregation 
of  Jacob,  the  people  that  has  ever  loved  and  wooed 
music,  only  direst  distress  succeeding  in  flinging  the 
pall  of  silence  over  song  and  melody. 


3/2  THE   MUSIC   OF  THE   SYNAGOGUE 

Holy  Writ  places  the  origin  of  music  in  the  primi- 
tive days  of  man,  tersely  pointing  out,  at  the  same 
time,  music's  conciliatory  charms:  it  is  the  descend- 
ant of  Cain,  the  fratricide,  a  son  of  Lemech,  the 
slayer  of  a  man  to  his  own  wounding,  who  is  said  to 
be  the  "  father  of  all  such  as  play  on  the  harp  and 
guitar  "  (Kinnor  and  Ugab).  Another  of  Lemech' s 
sons  was  the  first  artificer  in  every  article  of  copper 
and  iron,  the  inventor  of  weapons  of  war,  as  the  for- 
mer was  the  inventor  of  stringed  instruments.  Both 
used  brass,  the  one  to  sing,  the  other  to  fight  So 
music  sprang  from  sorrow  and  combat  Song  and 
roundelay,  timbrels  and  harp,  accompanied  our  fore- 
fathers on  their  wanderings,  and  preceded  the  armed 
men  into  battle.  So,  too,  the  returning  victor  was 
greeted,  and  in  the  Temple  on  Moriah's  crest,  joyful 
songs  of  gratitude  extolled  the  grace  of  the  Lord. 
From  the  harp  issued  the  psalm  dedicated  to  the 
glory  of  God — love  of  art  gave  rise  to  the  psalter,  a 
song-book  for  the  nations,  and  its  author  David  may 
be  called  the  founder  of  the  national  and  Temple 
music  of  the  ancient  Hebrews.  With  his  song,  he 
banished  the  evil  spirit  from  Saul's  soul;  with  his 
skill  on  the  psaltery,  he  defeated  his  enemies,  and  he 
led  the  jubilant  chorus  in  the  Holy  City  singing  to 
the  honor  and  glory  of  the  Most  High. 

Compare  the  Hebrew  and  the  Hellenic  music  of 
ancient  times:  Orpheus  with  his  music  charms  wild 
beasts;  David's  subdues  demons.  By  means  of 
Amphion's  lyre,  living  walls  raise  themselves;  Is- 
rael's cornets  make  level  the  ramparts  of  Jericho. 


THE    MUSIC    OF    THE   SYNAGOGUE  3/3 

Arion's  melodies  lure  dolphins  from  the  sea;  Hebrew 
music  infuses  into  the  prophet's  disciples  the  spirit 
of  the  Lord.  These  are  the  wondrous  effects  of 
music  in  Israel  and  in  Hellas,  the  foremost  repre- 
sentatives of  ancient  civilization.  Had  the  one 
united  with  the  other,  what  celestial  harmonies 
might  have  resulted!  But  later,  in  the  time  of 
Macedonian  imperialism,  when  Alexandria  and  Je- 
rusalem met,  the  one  stood  for  enervated  paganism, 
the  other  for  a  Judaism  of  compromise,  and  a  union 
of  such  tones  produces  no  harmonious  chords. 

But  little  is  known  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  music 
of  the  Temple,  of  the  singers,  the  songs,  the  melo- 
dies, and  the  instruments.  '  The  Hebrews  had  songs 
and  instrumental  music  on  all  festive,  solemn  occa- 
sions, particularly  during  the  divine  service.  At 
their  national  celebrations,  in  their  homes,  at  their 
diversions,  even  on  their  journeys  and  their  pil- 
grimages to  the  sanctuary,  their  hymns  were  at  once 
religious,  patriotic,  and  social.1  They  had  the  viol 
and  the  cithara,  flutes,  cymbals,  and  castanets,  and, 
if  our  authorities  interpret  correctly,  an  organ  (inag- 
rephd],  whose  volume  of  sound  surpassed  descrip- 
tion. When,  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  its  strains 
pealed  through  the  chambers  of  the  Temple,  they 
were  heard  in  the  whole  of  Jerusalem,  and  all  the 
people  bowed  in  humble  adoration  before  the  Lord 
of  hosts.  The  old  music  ceased  with  the  over- 
throw of  the  Jewish  state.  The  Levites  hung  their 

1Cmp.   Fetis,   Histoire  gdndrale   de   la  Musique,  Vol.   I.,  p. 


374  THE    MUSIC    OF   THE    SYNAGOGUE 

Harps  on  the  willows  of  Babylon's  streams,  and  every 
entreaty  for  the  "  words  of  song "  was  met  by  the 
reproachful  inquiry:  "  How  should  we  sing  the  song 
of  the  Lord  on  the  soil  of  the  stranger?"  Higros 
the  Levite  was  the  last  of  Israelitish  tone-artists. 

Israel  set  out  on  his  fateful  wanderings,  his  unpar- 
alleled pilgrimage,  through  the  lands  and  the  cen- 
turies, along  an  endless,  thorny  path,  drenched  with 
blood,  watered  with  tears,  across  nations  and 
thrones,  lonely,  terrible,  sublime  with  the  stern  sub- 
limity of  tragic  scenes.  They  are  not  the  sights  and 
experiences  to  inspire  joyous  songs — melody  is 
muffled  by  terror.  Only  lamentation  finds  voice, 
an  endless,  oppressive,  anxious  wail,  sounding 
adown,  through  two  thousand  years,  like  a  long- 
drawn  sigh,  reverberating  in  far-reaching  echoes: 
"  Plow  long,  O  Lord,  how  long! "  and  "  When  shall 
a  redeemer  arise  for  this  people?"  These  elegiac 
refrains  Israel  never  wearies  of  repeating  on  all  his 
journeyings.  Occasionally  a  fitful  gleam  of  sun- 
light glides  into  the  crowded  Jewish  quarters,  and 
at  once  a  more  joyous  note  is  heard,  rising  triumph- 
ant above  the  doleful  plaint,  a  note  which  asserts 
itself  exultingly  on  the  celebration  in  memory  of  the 
Maccabean  heroes,  on  the  days  of  Purim,  at  wed- 
ding banquets,  at  the  love-feasts  of  the  pious  brother- 
hood. This  fusion  of  melancholy  and  of  rejoicing 
is  the  keynote  of  mediaeval  Jewish  music  growing 
out  of  the  grotesque  contrasts  of  Jewish  history. 
Yet,  despite  its  romantic  woe,  it  is  informed  with  the 
spirit  of  a  remote  past,  making  it  the  legitimate  off- 


THE   MUSIC    OF   THE   SYNAGOGUE  3/5 

spring  of  ancient  Hebrew  music,  whose  characteris- 
tics, to  foe  sure,  we  arrive  at  only  by  guesswork.  Of 
that  mediaeval  music  of  ours,  the  poet's  words  are 
true:  "  It  rejoices  so  pathetically,  it  laments  so  joy- 
fully." 

Whoever  has  heard,  will  never  forget  Israel's  mel- 
odies, breaking  forth  into  rejoicing,  then  cast  down 
with  sadness;  flinging  out  their  notes  to  the  skies, 
the:^  sinking  into  an  abyss  of  grief;  now  elated,  now 
oppressed;  now  holding  out  hope,  now  moaning 
forth  sorrow  and  pain.  They  convey  the  whole  of 
Judah's  history — his  glorious  past,  his  mournful  pre- 
sent, his  exalted  future  promised  by  God.  As  their 
tones  flood  our  soul,  a  succession  of  visions  passes 
before  our  mental  view:  the  Temple  in  all  its  unex- 
ampled splendor,  the  exultant  chorus  of  Levites,  the 
priests  discharging  their  holy  office,  the  venerable 
forms  of  the  patriarchs,  the  lawgiver-guide  of  the 
people,  prophets  with  uplifted  ringer  of  warning, 
worthy  rabbis,  pale-faced  martyrs  of  the  middle  ages ; 
but  the  melodies  conjuring  before  our  minds  all 
these  shadowy  figures  have  but  one  burden :  "  How 
should  we  sing  the  song  of  the  Lord  on  the  soil  of 
the  stranger?" 

That  is  the  ever-recurring  motif  of  the  Jewish 
music  of  the  middle  ages.  But  the  blending  of 
widely  different  emotions  is  not  favorable  to  the 
creation  of  melody.  Secular  occurrences  set  their 
seal  upon  religious  music,  of  which  some  have  so 
high  a  conception  as  to  call  it  one  of  the  seven  lib- 
eral arts,  or  even  to  extol  it  beyond  poetry.  Jacob 


376  THE    MUSIC    OF    THE    SYNAGOGUE 

Levi  of  Mayence  (Maharil),  living  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  is  considered  the  founder  of 
German  synagogue  music,  but  his  productions  re- 
mained barren  of  poetic  and  devotional  results.  He 
drew  his  best  subjects  from  alien  sources.  At  the 
time  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  music  had  so  firmly 
established  itself  in  the  appreciation  of  the  people 
that  a  preacher,  Judah  Muscato,  devoted  the  first  of 
his  celebrated  sermons  to  music,  assigning  to  it  a 
high  mission  among  the  arts.  He  interpreted  the 
legend  of  David's  /Eolian  harp  as  a  beautiful  alle- 
gory. Basing  his  explanation  on  a  verse  in  the 
Psalms,  he  showed  that  it  symbolizes  a  spiritual  ex- 
perience of  the  royal  bard.  Another  writer,  Abra- 
ham ben  David  Portaleone,  found  the  times  still 
riper;  he  could  venture  to  write  a  theory  of  music, 
as  taught  him  by  his  teachers,  Samuel  Arkevolti  and 
Menahem  Lonsano,  both  of  whom  had  strongly 
opposed  the  use  of  certain  secular  melodies  then  cur- 
rent in  Italy,  Germany,  France,  and  Turkey  for  re- 
ligious songs.  Among  Jewish  musicians  in  the  lat- 
ter centuries  of  the  middle  ages,  the  most  prominent 
was  Solomon  Rossi.  He,  too,  failed  to  exercise  in- 
fluence on  the  shaping  of  Jewish  music,  which  more 
and  more  delighted  in  grotesqueness  and  aberrations 
from  good  taste.  The  origin  of  synagogue  melo- 
dies was  attributed  to  remoter  and  remoter  periods; 
the  most  soulful  hymns  were  adapted  to  frivolous 
airs.  Later  still,  at  a  time  when  German  music  had 
risen  to  its  zenith,  when  Bach,  Handel,  Haydn,  Mo- 
zart, and  Beethoven  flourished,  the  Jewish  strolling 


THE   MUSIC    OF   THE    SYNAGOGUE  3/7 

musician  Klesmer,  a  mendicant  in  the  world  of  song 
as  in  the  world  of  finance,  was  wandering  through 
the  provinces  with  his  two  mates. 

Suddenly  a  new  era  dawned  for  Israel,  too.  The 
sun  of  humanity  sent  a  few  of  its  rays  into  the 
squalid  Ghetto.  Its  walls  fell  before  the  trumpet 
blast  of  deliverance.  On  all  sides  sounded  the  cry 
for  liberty.  The  brotherhood  of  man,  embracing 
all,  did  not  exclude  storm-baptized  Israel.  The  old 
synagogue  had 'to  keep  pace  with  modern  demands, 
and  was  arrayed  in  a  new  garb.  Among  those  who 
designed  and  fashioned  the  new  garment,  he  is 
prominent  in  whose  honor  we  have  met  to-day. 

From  our  short  journey  through  the  centuries  of 
music,  we  have  returned  to  him  who  has  succeeded 
in  the  great  work  of  restoring  to  its  honorable  place 
the  music  of  the  synagogue,  sorely  missed,  ardently 
longed  for,  and  bringing  back  to  us  old  songs  in  a 
new  guise.  An  old  song  and  a  new  melody!  The 
old  song  of  abiding  love,  loyalty,  and  resignation 
to  the  will  of  God!  His  motto  was  the  beautiful 
verse :  "  My  strength  and  my  song  is  the  Lord " ; 
and  his  unchanging  refrain,  the  jubilant  exclama- 
tion: "  Blessed  be  thou,  fair  Musica! "  A  wise  man 
once  said:  "Hold  in  high  honor  our  Lady  of 
Music !  "  The  wise  man  was  Martin  Luther — an- 
other instance  this  of  the  conciliatory  power  of  mu- 
sic, standing  high  above  the  barriers  raised  by  re- 
ligious differences.  It  is  worthy  of  mention,  on  this 
occasion,  that  at  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  cel- 
ebration in  honor  of  Martin  Luther,  in  the  Sebaldus 


3/8  THE    MUSIC    OF    THE   SYNAGOGUE 

church  at  Nuremberg,  the  most  Protestant  of  the 
cities  of  Germany,  called  by  Luther  himself  "  the 
eye  of  God,"  a  psalm  of  David  was  sung  to  music 
composed  by  our  guest  of  the  day. 

**  Hold  in  high  honor  our  Lady  of  Music! "  We 
will  be  admonished  by  the  behest,  and  give  honor 
to  the  artist  by  whose  fostering  care  the  music  of 
the  synagogue  enjoys  a  new  lease  of  life;  who,  with 
pious  zeal,  has  collected  our  dear  old  melodies,  and 
has  sung  them  to  us  with  all  the  ardor  and  power 
with  which  God  in  His  kindness  endowed  him. 

"The  sculptor  must  simulate  life,  of  the  poet  I  demand  in 

telligence  ; 
The  soul  can  be  expressed  only  by  Polyhymnia  !  " 

An  orphan,  song  wandered  hither  and  thither 
through  the  world,  met,  after  many  days,  by  the 
musician,  who  compassionately  adopted  it,  and 
clothed  it  with  his  melodies.  On  the  pinions  of 
music,  it  now  soars  whithersoever  it  listeth,  bring- 
ing joy  and  blessing  wherever  it  alights.  "  The  old 
song,  the  new  melody !  "  Hark !  through  the  silence 
of  the  night  in  this  solemn  moment,  one  of  those 
old  songs,  clad  by  our  maestro  in  a  new  melody, 
falls  upon  our  ears :  "  1  remember  unto  thee  the 
kindness  of  thy  youth,  the  love  of  thy  espousals,  thy 
going  after  me  in  the  wilderness,  through  a  land  that 
is  not  sown !  " 

Hearken!  Can  we  not  distinguish  in  its  notes, 
as  they  fill  our  ears,  the  presage  of  a  music  of  the 
future,  of  love  and  good-will  ?  We  seem  to  hear  the 


THE    MUSIC    OF   THE   SYNAGOGUE  379 

rustle  of  the  young  leaves  of  a  new  spring,  the  resur- 
rection foretold  thousands  of  years  agone  by  our 
poets  and  prophets.  We  see  slowly  dawning  that 
great  day  on  which  mankind,  awakened  from  the 
fitful  sleep  of  error  and  delusion,  will  unite  in  the 
profession  of  the  creed  of  brotherly  love,  and  Israel's 
song  will  be  mankind's  song,  myriads  of  voices  in 
unison  sending  aloft  to  the  skies  the  psalm  of  praise : 
Hallelujah,  Hallelujah! 


INDEX 


Aaron,  medical  writer,  79 

Abbahu,  Haggadist,  21 

Abbayu,  rabbi, quoted,  232-233 

Abina,  rabbi,  19 

Abitur,  poet,  24 

Aboab,  Isaac,  writer,  45,  130 

Aboab,  Samuel,  Bible  scholar, 

45 
Abrabanel,  Isaac,  scholar  and 

statesman,  42,  99 
Abrabanel,  Judah,  42,  95 
Abraham  in  Africa,  255 
Abraham  Bedersi,  poet,  171 
Abraham  ben  Chiya,  scientist, 

83.93 

Abraham  ben  David  Porta- 
leone,  musician,  376 

Abraham  de  Balmes,  physi- 
cian, 95 

Abraham  dei  Mansi,  Talmud- 
ist,  116 

Abraham  ibii  Daud,  philoso- 
pher, 35 

Abraham  ibn  Ezra,  exegete,  36 
mathematician,  83 

Abraham  ibn  Sahl,  poet,  34,  88 

Abraham  Judaeus.  See  Abra- 
ham ibn  Ezra 

Abraham  of  Sarteano,  poet,  224 

Abraham  Portaleone,  archaeo- 
logist, 45,  97 

Abraham  Powdermaker,  le- 
gend of,  285-286 

Abt  and  Mendelssohn,  314 

Abyssinia,  the  Ten  Tribes  in, 
262-263 

Ackermann,  Rachel,  novelist, 
119 


Acosta,  Uriel,  alluded  to,  100 
Acta  Esther  et   Achashverosh^ 

drama,  244 
Actors,  Jewish,  232,  246,  247- 

248 

Adia,  poet,  24 

Adiabene,  Jews  settle  in,  251 
.^Esop's  fables  translated  into' 

Hebrew,  34 
"  A  few  words  to  the  Jews  by 

one    of    themselves,"   by 

Charlotte  Montefiore,  133 
Afghanistan,  the  Ten    Tribes 

in,  259 

Africa,  interest  in,  249-250 
in  the  Old  Testament,  255 
the  Talmud  on,  254 
the  Ten  Tribes  in,  262 
Agau  spoken  by  the  Falashas, 

265 
Aguilar,  Grace,    author,    134- 

137 

testimonial  to,  136-137 
"  Ahasverus,"  farce,  244 
Ahaz,  king,  alluded  to,  250 
Akiba  ben  Joseph,  rabbi,   19, 

58 

quoted,  253,  256 
Albert  of  Prussia,  alluded  to, 

288 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Maimo- 

nides,  156,  164 
philosopher,  82 
proscribes  the  Talmud,  85 
Albo,  Joseph,  philosopher,  42 
Al-Chazari,  by  Yehuda  Hale- 

vi,  31 
commentary  on,  298 

381 


,82 


INDEX 


Alemanno,  Jochanan,  Kabba- 
list,  95 

Alessandro    Farnese,    alluded 
to,  98 

Alexander  III,  pope,  and  Jew- 
ish diplomats,  99 

Alexander  the  Great,  229,  254 

Alexandria,  centre   of  Jewish 

life,  17 
philosophy  in,  75 

Alfonsine  Tables  compiled,  92 

Alfonso   V    of    Portugal   and 
Isaac  Abrabanel,  99 

Alfonso  X,  of  Castile,  patron 
of  Jewi-h  scholars,  92,  93 

Alfonso   XI,   of   Castile,    170, 
260 

Alityros,  actor,  232 

Alkabez,  Solomon,  poet,  43 

Alliance  Israelite   Univcrselle, 
and  the  Falashas,  264 

"  Almagest"  by  Ptolemy  trans- 
lated, 79 
read  by  Maimonides,  159 

Almansor  by  Heine,  347 

Almohades  and    Maimonides, 
148 

Altweibcrdeutsch.     See  Juden- 
deutsch 

Amatus  Lusitanus,  physician, 

42,97 

Amharic  spoken  by  the  Fala- 
shas, 265 

Amoraim,  Speakers,  58 
Amos,  prophet,  alluded  to,  251 
Amsterdam,    Marrano   centre, 

128-129 
Anahuac  and  the  Ten  Tribes, 

259 
Anatoli.    See  Jacob  ben  Abba- 

Mari  ben  Anatoli 
Anatomy  in  the  Talmud,  77 
Anna,  Rashi's  granddaughter, 

118 

Anti-Maimunists,  39-40 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  alluded 

to,  193 


Antonio   di    Montoro,    trouba- 
dour, 97,  180-181 
Antonio  dos  Keys,  on  Isabella 

Correa,  129 
Antonio    Enriquez  di  Gomez. 

See  Enriquez,  Antonio. 
Antonio  Jose  de  Silva,  drama- 
tist, ico,  236-237 
Aquinas,     Thomas,     philoso- 
pher, 82 

and  Maimonides,  156,  164 
under  Gabirol's  influence,  94 
works  of,  translated,  86 
Arabia,  Jews  settle  in,  250-251 
the  Ten  Tribes  in,  256-257 
Arabs  influence  Jews,  80 
relation  of,  to  Jews,  22 
Argens,  d',  and  Mendelssohn, 

3°3 

Aristeas,  Neoplatonist,  17 

Aristobulus,  Aristotelian,  17 

Aristotle,  alluded  to,  250 
and  Maimonides,  156 
interpreted  by  Jews,  85 
quoted,  249 

Arkevolti,  Samuel,  grammar- 
ian, 376 

Armenia,  the  Ten  Tribes  in, 
259 

Arnstein,  Benedict  David, 
dramatist,  245 

Art  among  Jews,  102 

"Art  of  Carving  and  Serving 
at  Princely  Boards,  The  " 
translated,  91 

Arthurian  legends  in  Hebrew, 

87 

Ascarelli,  Deborah,  poetess, 
44,  124 

Ashei  ben  Yehuda,  hero  of  a 
romance,  34,  213 

Ashi,  compiler  of  the  Babylo- 
nian Talmud,  19 

Ashkenasi, Hannah,  authoress, 
1 20 

Asirek  ha-  Tikwah,  by  Joseph 
Pensa,  237-238 


INDEX 


383 


Asiya,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Astruc,  Bible  critic,  13 
Auerbach,  Berthold,  novelist, 

49-  5° 
quoted,  303 

Auerbach,  J.  L.,  preacher,  322 

Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zei- 
ttmg  and  Heine,  340 

Avenare.  See  Abraham  ibn 
Ezra 

Avencebrol.  See  Gabirol, 
Solomon 

Avendeath,  Johannes,  transla- 
tor of  "The  Fount  of 
Life,"  26 

Averroes  and  Maimonides, 
163-164 

Avicebron.  See  Gabirol,  Sol- 
omon 

Avicenna  and  Maimonides, 
156,  158 

Azariah  de  Rossi,  scholar,  45 

Azila,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 

Barrios,  de,  Daniel,  critic,  47, 

129 
Barruchius,  Valentin,  romance 

writer,  171 
Bartholdy,    Salomon,    quoted, 

308 

Bartolocci,  Hebrew  scholar,  48 
Bassista,  Sabbatai,  bibliogra- 
pher, 47 

Bath  Halevi,  Talmudist,  117 
Bechai'   ibn   Pakuda,  philoso- 
pher, 35,  137 
Beck.  K.,  poet,  49 
Beeiia,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Beer,  Jacob  Herz,  establishes 

a  synagogue,  322 
Beer,  M.,  poet,  49 
Behaim,  Martin,  scientist,  96 
Belmonte,  Bienvenida  Cohen, 

poetess,  130 

"  Belshazzar  "  by  Heine,  344 
Bendavid.     See    Lazarus   ben 
David 


"  Beni  Israel  "   and    the    Ten 
Tribes,  259 

Benjamin  of  Tudela,  traveller, 

37,  258 
quoted,  263 

Berachya  ben   Natronai  (Ha- 
nakdan),  fabulist,  34,  88 

Beria,  a  character  in  Imman- 
uel  Romi's  poem,  221-222 

Beria,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 

Bernhard,  employer    of   Men- 
delssohn, 298,  300,  304 

Bernhardt,  Sarah,  actress,  246 

Bernstein,  Aaron,  Ghetto  nov- 
elist, 50 
quoted,  272 

Bemstorff,  friend  of  Henriette 
Herz,  313 

Berschadzky  on  Saul  Wahl,  282 

Beruriah,  wife  of  Rabbi  Mei'r, 
no-  112 

Bible.   See  Old  Testament,The 

Bible  critics,  12,  13,  14 

Bible  dictionary,  Jewish   Ger- 
man, 100 

"  Birth  and  Death  "  from  the 
Haggada,  66 

Biurists,      the      Mendelssohn 
school,  309 

Blackcoal,  a  character  in  "  The 
Gift  of  Judah,"  214 

Blanche  de  Bourbon,  wife  of 
Pedro  I,  169 

Bleichroeder  quoted,  296-297 

Bloch,  Pauline,  writer,  140 

Boccaccio,  alluded  to,  35 

Bockh,  alluded  to,  333 

Bonet  di  Lattes,   astronomer, 

95 
Bonifacio,  Balthasar,    accuser 

of  Sara  Sullam,  127 
"  Book   of   Diversions,  The  " 

by  Joseph  ibn  Sabara,  214 
"Book   of  Samuel,"  by  Litte 

of  Ratisbon,  1 19,  120 
"Book  of  Songs"  by  Heine, 

353 


INDEX 


Borne,  Ludwig,  quoted,    313- 

3'4,  359-361 
Borromeo,    cardinal,    alluded 

to,  98 
Brinkmann,  friend  of  Henriette 

Herz,  313 
Bruno  di  Lungoborgo,  work  of, 

translated,  86 
Bruno,  Giordano,  philosopher, 

82 

Buck  der  Lieder  by  Heine,  353 
Buffon  quoted,  89 
Biischenthal,    L.     M.,   drama- 
tist, 245 
Buxtorf,      father      and      son, 

scholars,  48 
translates    "  The    Guide    of 

the  Perplexed,"  155 

Calderon,  alluded  to,  239 
Calderon,  the  Jewish,  100 
Calendar  compiled  by  the 

rabbis,  77 

Caliphs    and     Jewish     diplo- 
mats, 98 

Campe,     Joachim,    on     Men- 
delssohn, 314-315 
Cardinal,    Peire,    troubadour, 

171-172 

Casimir    the  Great,  Jews  un- 
der, 286 
Cassel,  D.,  scholar,  49 

quoted,  19-20 

Castro,  de,  Orobio,  author,  47 
Ceba,  Ansaldo,  and  Sara  Sul- 

lam,  125-128 
Celestina,  by  Rodrigo  da  Cota, 

97,  235 

Chananel,  alluded  to,  257 
Chanukka,  story  of,  359-360 
Charlemagne  and  Jewish  dip- 
lomats, 98 
Charles    of   Anjou,  patron   of 

Hebrew  learning,  92 
Chasan,  Bella,  historian,  120 
Chasdai  ben  Shaprut,  states- 
man, 82 


Chasdai  Crescas,  philosopher, 

42,  93-94 
Chassidism   a  form  of  Kabba- 

listic  Judaism,  46 
Chesed,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Children  in  the  Talmud,  63-64 
Chiya,  rabbi,  19 
Chiya  bar  Abba.  Halachist.  21 
Chmielnicki,  Bogdan,  and  the 

Jews,  288 

Chochma,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Chatham  Tochnith  by  Abraham 

Bedersi,  171 
"  Chronicle  of  the  Cid,"  the 

first,  by  a  Jew,  90,  170 
Cicero  and  the  drama,  232 
Clement  VI,  pope,  and  Levi 

ben  Gerson,  91 

Cochin,  the  Ten  Tribes  in,  259 
Cohen,  friend  of  Heine,  350 
Cohen,   Abraham,   Talmudist, 

118 

Cohen,  Joseph,  historian,  44 
Coins,  Polish,  286 
Columbus,  alluded  to,  181 

and  Jews,  96 

Comedy,  nature  of,  195-196 
Commendoni,    legate,    on   the 

Polish  Jews,  287 
"  Commentaries  on  Aristotle  " 

by  Averroes,  163 
"  Commentary   on    Ecclesias- 

tes  "  by  Obadiah  Sforno, 

95 
Commerce  developed  by  Jews, 

IOI-IO2 

Comte  Lyonnais,  Palanus,  ro- 
mance, 90, 171 

"Confessions"  by  Heine, 
quoted,  365-366 

Conforte,  David,  historian,  43 

Consejos  y  Documentos  al  Key 
Dom  Pedro  by  Santob  de 
Carrion,  173-174 

ConsolaQam  as  Tribulafots  de 
Ysrael  by  Samuel  Usque, 
44 


INDEX 


Constantine,  translator,  81 

"Contemplation  of  the  World" 
by  Yedaya  Penini,  40 

"  Contributions  to  History  and 
Literature  "  by  Zunz,  337 

Copernicus  and  Jewish  astron- 
omers, 86 

Correa,  Isabella,  poetess,  129 

Cota,  da,  Rodrigo,  dramatist, 
97,235 

"  Counsel  and  Instruction  to 
King  Dom  Pedro "  by 
Santob  de  Carrion,  173- 

174 
"  Court    Secrets "    by    Rachel 

Ackermann,  119 
Cousin,    Victor,   on    Spinoza, 

145 

Creation,  Maimonides'  theory 
of,  1 60 

Creed,  the  Jewish,  by  Maimo- 
nides, 151-152 

Creizenach,  Th.,  poet,  49 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  and  Maiias- 
seh  ben  Israel,  99 

Dalalat  al-Ha'irin^  "Guide  of 

the  Perplexed,"  154 
Damm,   teacher   of    Mendels- 
sohn, 299 
"  Dance  of  Death,"  attributed 

to  Santob,  174 
Daniel,      Immanuel      Romi's 

guide  in  Paradise,  223 
Dansa   General,  attributed   to 

Santob,  174 
Dante    and    Immanuel   Romi, 

35,  89,  220,  223 
Dante,  the  Hebrew,  124 
"  Dark  Continent,  The."    See 

Africa 

David,  philosopher,  83 
David  ben  Levi,  Talmudist,  46 
David  ben  Yehuda,  poet,  223 
David  d'Ascoli,  physician,  97 
David  della  Rocca,  alluded  to, 
124 


David    de     Pomis,   physician, 

45.  97 

Davison,  Bogumil,  actor,  246 
Deborah,  as  poetess,  106-107 
De  Causis.  by  David,  83 
Decimal   fractions   first   men- 
tioned, 91 

"  Deeds  of    King    David   and 
Goliath,  The,"  drama,  244 
Delitzsch,  Franz,  quoted,  24 
Del  Medigo,  Elias.    See  Elias 
del    Medigo   and    Joseph 
del  Medigo 

De  Rossi,  Hebrew  scholar,  48 
Deutsch,     Caroline,     poetess, 

139,  142-143 
Deutsch,     Emanuel,    on     the 

Talmud,  68-70 
Deutsche  Brief e  by  Zunz,  337 
Dialoghi  di  Amore  by  Judah 

Abrabanel,  42,  95 
Dichter    und     Kaufmann    by 

Berthold  Auerbach,  49 
Die    Freitnutigen,    Zunz    con- 
tributor to,  330 

Die  gottesdienstlichen  Vortrdge 
der   Juden   by    Zunz,    48, 

333-335 

Diez,  alluded  to,  333 
Dingelstedt,     Franz,    quoted, 

319 

Dioscorides,  botanist,  82 
Disciplina  clericalis,  a  collec- 
tion of  tales,  89,  171 
Divina  Commedia,  travestied, 

35 

imitated,  89,  124 
Doctor       angelicus,       Thomas 

Aquinas,  94 
Doctor  Perplexorum,   "  Guide 

of  the  Perplexed,"  154,155 
Document    hypothesis   of  the 

Old  Testament,  13 
Dolce,  scholar  and  martyr.  1 19 
Donnolo,  Sabattai,  physician, 

82 


386 


INDEX 


Dorothea     of      Kurlancl     and 

Mendelssohn.  31  5 
Dotina,    friend    of    Heiiriette 

Herz,  313 
Drama,  the,  among  the  ancient 

Hebrews,  229 
classical    Hebrew,  244-245, 

248 

first  Hebrew,  published,  239 
first  Jewish,  2^4 
Jewish  German,  246-247 
Drama,  the  German,  Jews  in, 

245 
the  Portuguese,  Jews  in,  236- 

237,  238 
the  Spanish,  Jews  in,   235- 

236 

Dramatists,  Jewish,  230,  235, 
236,    237,    238,    239,    244, 
245,  248 
Drinking  songs,  200-201,  204, 

205,  209,  212-213 
Dubno,    Solomon,   commenta- 
tor, 309 

Dukes.  L.,  scholar,  49 
Dunash  ben    Labrat,    alluded 

to,  257 

"Duties  of  the  Heart"  by 
Bechai,  137 

Eben  Bochan,  by  Kalonymos 
ben  Kalonymos,  216-219 

Egidio  de  Viterbo,  cardinal,  44 

Eibeschiitz,  Jonathan,  Tal- 
mudist,  47 

Eldad  ha-Dani,  traveller,  37, 
80,  257-258 

Elias  del  Medigo,  scholar,  44, 

94 

Elias  Kapsali,  scholar,  98 
Elias  Levita,  grammarian,  44, 

95 

Elias  Mizrachi,  scholar,  98 
Elias  of  Genzano,  poet,  224 
Elias  Wilna,  Talmudist,  46 
Eliezer,  rabbi,  quoted.  253 
Eliezer  ha-Levi,  Talmudist,  36 


Eliezer  of  Metz,  Talmudist,  36 
El  Muallima,  Karaite,  117 
Em  beyisrael,  Deborah,  107 
Emden,  Jacob.  Talmudist,  47 
Emin  Pasha,  alluded  to,  250 
"Enforced      Apostasy,"      by 

Maimonides,  152 
Engel.     friend    of     Henriette 

Herz,  313 
Enriquez,  Antonio,  di  Gomez, 

dramatist,  100,  236. 
Enriquez,    Isabella,    poetess, 

<3° 

£n-Sfl/,  Kabbalistic  term,  40, 

4' 
Ephraim,  the  Israelitish  king- 

d"m,  251 
Ephraim,  Veitel,  financier,  304, 

3i6 

Erasmus,  quoted,  44 
Esheth  Lapidoth,  Deborah,  106 
Eskeles,    banker,   alluded    to, 

305 
Esterka.  supposed  mistress  of 

Casimir  the  Great,  286 
"  Esther,"  by  Solomon  Usque, 

235 

Esthori  Hafarchi,  topograph- 
er, 93 

Ethiopia.     See  Abyssinia 

Euchel,  Isaac,  Hebrew  writer, 
48,  3°9 

Eupolemos,  historian,  17 

Euripides,  alluded  to,  230 

Ewald,  Bible  critic,  14 

"Exodus  from  Egypt,  The" 
by  Ezekielos,  230 

Ezekiel,  prophet,  quoted,  252, 
: 94-295 

Ezekielos,  dramatist,  17,  230 

Ezra,  alluded  to,  253 

Fables  translated  by  Jews,  79, 
86-87,  88 

Fagius,  Paul,  Hebrew  schol- 
ar, 44,  95 


INDEX 


Falashas,  the,  and  the  mission- 
aries, 263,  267 
and   the    Negus    Theodore, 

267 

customs  of,  266 
described  by  Halevy,  264 
history  of,  263 
intellectual     eagerness     of, 

266,  268 
Messianic   expectations   of, 

267-268 

religious  customs  of,  265-266 
Faust   of  Saragossa,  Gabirol, 

199 
Faust  translated  into  Hebrew, 

248 

Felix,  Rachel,  actress,  246 
Ferdinand     and     Isabella    of 
Spain  and  Isaac  Abraba- 
nel,  99 
Ferrara,  duke  of,  candidate  in 

Poland,  278 

Figo,  Azariah,  rabbi,  45 
Fischels,   Rosa,   translator  of 

the  Psalms,  120 
"  Flaming     Sword,  The,"   by 

Abraham  Bedersi,  171 
"  Flea  Song  "  by  Yehuda  Cha- 

risi,  212 

Fleck,  actor,  311 
Foa,  Rebekah  Eugenie,  writer, 

139 
Folquet  de  Lunel,  troubadour, 

171-172 
Fonseca  Pina  y  Pimentel,  de, 

Sara,  poetess,  130 
"  Foundation  of  the  Universe, 

The,"  by  Isaac  Israeli,  93 
"  Foundation    of    the    World, 

The,"    by  Moses   Zacuto, 

238-239 

"Fount  of  Life,  The,"  by  Ga- 
birol, 26 

Fox  fables  translated,  79 
Frank,  Rabbi  Dr.,  alluded  to, 

345 


Frankel,    David,     teacher     of 

Mendelssohn,  793 
Frankel,  Z,  scholar,  49 
Frankl,  L.  A.,  poet,  49 
Frank- Wolff,  Ulla,  writer,  139 
Franzos,  K.  E.,  Ghetto  novel- 
ist, 50 

Frederick  II,  emperor,  patron 
of  Hebrew  learning,  40, 
85,  89,  92 

Frederick  the  Great  and  Men- 
delssohn, 301-303 
and  the  Jews,  316-317 
Freidank,  German  author,  185 
Friedlander,    David,    disciple 
of  Mendelssohn,  48,  317,  350 
Frohlich,  Regina,  writer,  131 
Furst,  J.,  scholar,  49 

Gabirol,      Solomon,     philoso- 
pher, 26-27,  82-83,  94 
poet,  24,  25-26,  27,  199 
Gad,  Esther,  alluded  to,  132 
Galen  and  Gamaliel,  81 
works  of,  edited  by  Maimon- 

ides,  153 
Gama,   da,  Vasco,  and  Jews, 

96-97 

Gamaliel,  rabbi,  18,  77,  81 
Gans,  David,  historian,  47 
Gans,  Edward,  friend  of 

Heine,  324,  346,  350 
Gaspar,  Jewish  pilot,  96 
Gayo,  Isaac,  physician,  86 
Geiger,  Abraham,  scholar,  49 
Geldern,  van,  Betty,  mother  of 

Heine,  341,  344 
Geldern,      van,       Gottschalk, 

Heine's  uncle,  341 
Geldern,   van,  Isaac,   Heine's 

grandfather,  341 
Geldern,  van,  Lazarus,Heine's 

uncle,  341 
Geldern,  van,    Simon,  author, 

34i 

Geiitz,  von,  Friedrich,  friend 
of  Henriette  Herz,  313 


38S 


INDEX 


Geometry  in  the  Talmud,  77 

German  literature  cultivated 
by  Jews,  87 

Gerson  ben  Solomon,  scient- 
ist, 90 

Gesellschafter,  Zunz  contribu- 
tor to  the,  330 

Ghedullciy  Kabbalistic  term,  41 

Ghemara,  commentary  on  the 
Mishiia,  60 

Ghetto  tales,  50 

Ghevoora,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 

Gideon,  Jewish  king  in  Abys- 
sinia, 263 

"  Gift  from  a  Misogynist,  A," 
satire,  by  Yehuda  ibn 
Sabbatai,  34,  2(4-216 

Glaser,  Dr.  Edward,  on  the 
Falashas,  263 

Goethe,  alluded  to,  314 

and  Jewish  literature,    103- 

104 
on  Yedaya  Penini,  40 

Goldschmidt,  Henriette,  writ- 
er, 139 

Goldschmidt,  Johanna,  writer, 

159 

Goldschmied,  M.,  Ghetto  nov-  j 

elist,  50 
Goldsmid,  Anna  Maria,  writer, 

137 

Goldsmid,  Isaac  Lyon,  allud- 
ed to,  137 

Gottloeber,  A.,  dramatist,  248 
Gotz,  Ella,  translator,  120 
Graetz,    Heinrich,    historian, 

49 

quoted,  185 
Graziano,    Lazaro,    dramatist, 

235 
Greece  and  Judaea  contrasted, 

194 
Grimani,  Dominico,  cardinal, 

alluded  to.  95 
Grimm,  alluded  to,  333 
Guarini,  dramatist,  239 


Gugenheim,    Fromet,  wife    of 

Mendelssohn,  303 
quoted,  307 

"  Guide     of    the     Perplexed, 
The,"  contents  of,  157-163 
controversy  over,  164-166 
English       translation        of, 

155  (note) 
purpose  of,  155 
Gumpertz,    Aaron,    and    Men- 
delssohn, 297,  299 
quoted,  298 

Gundisalvi,  Dominicus.  trans- 
lator of  "The  Fount  of 
Life,  "26 

Gi'msburg,  C.,  preacher,  322 
Giinsburg,  Simon,  confidant  of 

Stephen  Bathori,  287 
"  Gustavus  Vasa "    by    Grace 

Aguilar,  134 
Gutzkow,  quoted,  306 

Haggada    and    Halacha   con- 
trasted, 21,  60,  194-195 
Haggada,  the,   characterized, 

l8*  54-55'  60-6 1,  64-70 
cosmopolitan,  33 
described  by  Heine.  20 
ethical  sayings  from,  61-63 
poetic  quotations  from,  65- 

•68 
Haggada,  the,  at  the  Passover 

service,  344~345 
Hai,  Gaon,  22 

Halacha   and    Haggada   con- 
trasted, 21,  60,  194-195 
Halacha,    the,    characterized, 

18.  54-55 
subjective,  33 

Hale'vy,  Joseph,  and  the    Fa- 
lashas, 264 
quoted,  265-266 

Halley's  comet  and  Rabbi 
Joshua,  77 

"  Hainan's  Will  and  Death," 
drama.  244 

Hamel,  Glikel,  historian,  120 


INDEX 


389 


Handele,  daughter  of  Saul 
Wahl,  276 

Hariri,  Arabic  poet,  32,  34 
(note) 

Haroun  al  Rashid,  embassy 
to.  99 

Hartmann,  M.,  poet,  49 

Hartog,  Marian,  writer,  137 

Hartung,  actor,  248 

ffa-Sallach,  Moses  ibn  Ezra, 
205 

Hebrew  drama,  first,  publish- 
ed, 237  • 

Hebrew    language,    plasticity 

of,  32-33 

Hebrew  studies  among  Chris- 
tians, 44,  47-48,95,  98 
Heckscher,  Fromet,  ancestress 

of  Heine,  341 
Hegel  and  Heine,  346 
Heine,  Heinrich,  poet,  49 
and  Venus  of  Milo,  362 
appreciation  of,  340 
characterized   by    Schopen- 
hauer, 357-3S8 
character  of,  367 
conversion  of,  348-351 
family  of,  341-342,  344 
Ghetto  novelist,  50 
in  Berlin,  346-347 
in  Gettingen,  347-348 
in  Paris,  358-359 
Jewish   traits    of,     345-348, 

353-357 

on  Gabirol,  25-26 
on  the  Jews,  362-363,  365- 

366 

on  Yehuda  Halevi,  27 
on  Zunz,  327-328,  333 
quoted,  9,  20,  28.  206 
religious  education  of,  343 
return  of,  to  Judaism,  366 
wife  of,  363-364 
will  of,  366-367 
Heine,  Mathilde,  wife  of  Hein- 
rich Heine,  363-364 
Heine, Maximilian, quoted,  344 


"  Heine  of  the  middle  ages," 

Immanuel  Komi,  219 
Heine,     Samson,      father     of 
Heinrich  Heine,  341,  342 
Heine,      Solomon,     uncle     of 
Heinrich  Heine,  345,  352 
Hellenism  and  Judaism,  75-76 
Hellenists,  Heine  on,  359,  362 
Hennings,  alluded  to,  314 
Henry  of  Anjou,  election  of, 

in  Poland,  286-287 
Herder,   poet,    and    Mendels- 
sohn, 314 
quoted,  296 
Hermeneutics  by  Maimonides, 

162-163 

Herod  and  the  stage,  230-231 
Herrera,  Abraham,  Kabbalist, 

99 
Hertzveld,  Estelle  and  Maria, 

writers,  140 
Herz,  Henriette,    alluded   to, 

I31'  T33>  346 
and  Dorothea  Mendelssohn, 

306 

character  of,  312-313 
salon  of,  311-314 
Herz,  Marcus,  physicist,  310, 

311 
Herzberg-Frankel,  L.,  Ghetto 

novelist,  50 

Herzfeld,  L.,  scholar,  49 
Hess,  M.,  quoted,  109 
"Highest    Faith,     The"     by 

Abraham  ibn  Daud,  36 
Higros  the    Levite,  musician, 

369»  374 
Hildebold    von    Schwanegau, 

minne  singer,  182 
Hillel,  rabbi,  18 

quoted,  255 
Hillel  ben  Samuel,  translator 

86 

Himyarites  and  Jews,  256 
Hirsch,  scholar,  49 
Hirsch,  Jenny,  writer,  139 


390 


INDEX 


"  History  and  Literature  of 
the  Israelites "  by  Con- 
stance and  Anna  Roth- 
schild, 142 

"  History  of  S \nagogue  Poet- 
ry "  by  Zunz,  336 

"  History  of  the  Jews  in  Eng- 
land "  by  Grace  Aguilar, 

*35 
"History     of     the      National 

Poetry  of  the   Hebrews" 

by  Ernest  Meier,  14 
Hitzig,  architect,    alluded  to, 

298 

Hitzig,  Bible  critic,  13,  14 
Hod,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Holbein,  Hans,  illustrates  a 

Jewish  book,  102 
Holdheim,  S.,  scholar,  49 
Holland,  exiles  in,  128-129 
Hoinberg,    Herz     disciple    of 

Mendelssohn,  48,  309 
"Home  Influence"  by  Grace 

Aguilar,  134 

Hosea,  king,  alluded  to,  250 
Hosea,  prophet,  alluded  to,25i 
"Hours     of     Devotion"     by 

Fanny  Neuda,  140 
Humanism  and  the  Jews,  94- 

95 
Humboldts,  the,  and  Henriette 

Herz,  311,  312,  313 
Humor  in  antiquity,  191-192 
in    Jewish    German   litera- 
ture, 225-226 

nature  of,  195-195.  356-357 
Hurwitz,  Bella,  historian,  120 
Hurwitz,  Isaiah,  Kabbalist,  43 

Ibn  Alfange,  writer,  170 

Ibn  Chasdai,  Makamat  writer, 

Ibn  Sina  and  Maimonides,  156 
Iggereth  ha-SWinad  by  Maim- 
onides, 152 

Ikkarhn  by  Joseph  Albo.  42 
Ima  bhalom.  T;ilmu  ii.-t.  113 


Immanuel  ben  Solomon,  poet, 
35.89,90,  219-221,  222-223 
and  Dante,  35,  89,  220,  223 
quoted,  220,  221,  222 
Immanuel  Romi.     See  Imman- 
uel ben  Solomon 
India,  the  Ten  Tribes  in,  259 
Indians  and  the  Ten   Tribes, 

259 
Innocent  III,  pope,  alluded  to, 

184 
Intel!  igences.Maimonides'doc- 

trine  of  the,  1*59 
"Interest    and    Usury"   from 

the  Haggada,  67-68 
Iris,  Zunz  contributor  to  the, 

33° 

Isaac  Alfassi,  alluded  to,  257 

Isaac  ben  Abraham,  Talmud- 
ist,  36 

Isaac  ben  Moses,  Talmudist, 
36 

Isaac  ben  Sheshet,  philoso- 
pher, 42 

Isaac  ben  Yehuda  ibn  Ghay- 
yat,  poet,  201,  202 

Isaac  ibn  Sid,  astronomer,  92 

Isaac  Israeli,  mathematician, 

93 
Isaac  Israeli,  physician,  81,  82, 

257 
Isaiah,  prophet,   quoted,   251, 

252 

Ishmael,  poet,  alluded  to,  118 
Israel,  kingdom  of,  250-251 
"Israel  Defended"  translated 

by  Grace  Aguilar,  134 
"Israelites  on  Mount  Horeb, 

The,"  by  Simon  van  Gel- 

dern,  341 
Isserles,  Moses,  Talmudist,  46, 

100,  286 

Italy,  Jews  of  45-46,  116 
Itzig,  Daniel,  naturalization  of, 

31? 


INDEX 


391 


Jabneh,  academy  at,  57,  227- 
228 

Jacob  ben  Abba-Mari  ben 
Anatoli,  scholar,  39-40,  85 

Jacob  ben  Elias,  poet,  224 

Jacob  ben  Machir,  astrono- 
mer, 86 

Jacob    ben    Mei'r,    Talmudist, 

36 
Jacob  ben  Nissim,  alluded  to, 

257 
Jacob  ibn  Chabib,  Talmudist 

43 

Jason,  writer,  17 

Jay  me  J,  of  Aragon,  patron  of 
Hebrew  learning,  92 

Jellinek,  Adolf,  preacher,  49 
quoted,  33,  245-246 

Jeremiah,  prophet,  quoted,  251 

Jerusalem,  friend  of  Moses 
Mendelssohn,  314 

Jerusalem,  Kabbalists  in.  43 

Jesus,  mediator  between  Juda- 
ism and  Hellenism,  76 
quotes  the   Old  Testament, 

!3 

"Jewish  Calderon,  The," 
Antonio  Enriquez  di 
Gomez,  236 

Jewish  drama,  the  first,  234 
"Jewish     Faith,     The,"      by 

Grace  Aguilar,  135 
Jewish    German    drama,   the, 

246-247 
Jewish      historical      writings, 

lack  of,  23-24 
Jewish  history,  spirit  of,  269- 

271 
"Jewish      Homiletics "       by 

Zunz,  333-335 
Jewish  literature  and   Goethe, 

103-104 

characterized,  11-12 
comprehensiveness  of,  37 
definition  of,  328 
extent  of,  9-10.  22 
Hellenic  period  of,  16-17 


Jewish  literature  (continued), 
in  Persia,  90 

Jove  in,  122-123 

name  of,  10 

rabbinical  period  of,  38 
Jewish   philosophers,    17,    22, 

23>  35,  40,  42 
Jewish  poetry,  and  Syrian,  80 

future  of,  50 

subjects  of,  24-25 
Jewish  poets,  49 
Jewish  race,  the,  liberality  of, 

33-34 

morality  of,  36 
preservation  of,  108-109 
subjectivity  of.  33,  353-354 
versatility  of,  79 
Jewish  scholars,  49 
Jewish  Sybil,  the,  17-18 
"Jewish  Voltaire,  The,"  Im- 

manuel  Romi,  219 
Jewish  wit,  354-356 
Jews,  academies  of,  75,  79 
and  Columbus,  96 
and  commerce,  101-102 
and    Frederick    the    Great, 

316-317 

and  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, 38 
and  the   national  poetry   of 

Germany,  87 
and  the  Renaissance,  43~44» 

74-75-  94-95.  223>  224 
and  troubadour  poetry,  171- 

•7.1 

and  Vasco  da  Gama,  96-97 

as  diplomats,  98—99 

as  economists,  103 

as  interpreters  of  Aristotle, 

85 
as  linguists,  75 

as  literary  mediators,  97-98 
as  physicians.  19.  37,  44,  45, 

81-82,  86.  95,  97 
as  scientific  mediators.  78 
as    teachers    of    Christians, 

95.98 


392 


INDEX 


Jews  (cont'd), as  traders,  74-75 
as  translators,  44,  79,  86-87, 

88,89  9°.  9I~92 
as  travellers,  37-38 
as  wood  engravers.  102 
characterized  by  Heine,  362- 

363.  365~366 

defended  by  Reuchlin,  95 
in  Arabia,  256-257 
in  Holland,  46 
in  Italy,  45-46,  116 
in  Poland,  46,  286-288 
in  the  modern  drama,  235- 

237,  245 

in  the  sciences,  102 
of  Germany,  in  the  middle 

ages,  186 

of  Germany,  poverty  of,  319 
of  the   eighteenth    century, 

294 

relation  of,  to  Arabs,  22 
under  Arabic  influences,  78, 

80 

under  Hellenic  influences,  76 
under  Roman  influences,  76, 

.  77 

Joao  II,  of  Portugal,  employs 
Jewish  scholars,  96 

Jochanan,  compiler  of  the  Je- 
rusalem Talmud,  19,  114 

Jochanan  ben  Zakkai',  rabbi, 
18,  56-57,  228 

John  of  Seville,  mathemati- 
cian, 91 

Josefowicz  brothers  in  Lithua- 
nia, 287-288 

Joseph  ben  Jochanan,  wife  of, 
119 

Joseph  del  Medigo,  scholar,  45 

Joseph  Ezobi,  poet,  89 

Joseph  ibn  Aknin,  disciple  of 
Maimonides,  155 

Joseph  ibn  Nagdela,  wife  of, 
117 

Joseph  ibn  Sabara,  satirist, 
34,  214 

Joseph  ibn  Verga,  historian, 42 


Joseph  ibn    Zaddik,    philoso- 
pher, 35 

Josephus,    Flavius,    historian, 

!3»  J8,  44 
at  Rome,  232 
quoted,  230 

Joshua,  astronomer,  77 

Joshua,  Samaritan  book  of,  on 
the  Ten  Tribes,  252 

Joshua  ben  Chananya,  rabbi, 
18 

Joshua,  Jacob,  Talmudist,  47 

Jost,  Isaac  Marcus,  historian, 

49»  32 1 
on  Zunz,  320 
"Journal    for   the    Science  of 

Judaism,"    324-325,    329, 

352 
Juan  Alfonso  de  Baena,  poet, 

Judaea  and  Greece  contrasted, 

194 
Judaeo  -  Alexandrian     period, 

16-17 
Judah  Alfachar  and  Maimoni- 

des,  165 
Judah    Hakohen,   astronomer, 

93 
Judah   ibn    Sabbatai,  satirist, 

34,  214 
Judah  ibn  Tibbon,  translator, 

39' 84 

Judah  Tommo,  poet,  224 
Judaism  and  Hellenism,  75-76 

served  by  women,  1 1  5-1 16 
Judendeutsch,  patois,  47,  294 
literature  in,  47,  100-101 
philological  value  of,  100 
used  by  women,  119 
Judges,  quoted,  107 
Judith,  queen    of  the    Jewish 
kingdom     in     Abyssinia, 
262,  263 

Kabbala,     the,    attacked    and 

defended,  45,  46 
influence  of,  93,  99 


INDEX 


393 


Kabbala,     the      ( continued ), 
studied  by  Christians,  44 
supposed  author  of,  19 
system  of,  outlined,  40-41 
Kabbalists,  43,  95,  99 
Kaldm,  Islam  theology,  81 
Kalila  we-Dinina,  fox  fables, 

translated,  79 
Kalir,  Eliezer,  poet,  25 
"  Kaliric,"  classical  in  Jewish 

literature,  25 
Kalisch,  Ludwig,  quoted,  364- 

365 
Kaloiiymos  ben  Kalonymos  as 

a  satirist,  35,  216-219 
as  a  scholar,  89 
Kant  and  Maimonides,  146, 164 
's  philosophy  among  Jews, 

310 

Kara,  Abigedor,  Talmudist,47 
Karaite   doctrines  in   Castile, 

117 
Karo,  Joseph,  compiler  of  the 

Shulchan  Aruch,  43 
Kasmune  (Xemona),   poetess, 

24,  118 

Kaspi,  Joseph,  philosopher,  42 
Kayserling,  M.,  quoted,  300 
Kepler    and    Jewish    astrono- 
mers, 91,  92 

Kether,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Kimchi,    David,   grammarian, 

39,84 

"King  Solomon's  Seal"  by 
Biischenthal,  245 

Kisch,  teacher  of  Moses  Men- 
delssohn, 297 

Klesmer,  musician,  377 

Kley,  Edward,  preacher,  49, 
322 

Kohen,Sabbatai,Talmudist,46 

Kompert,  Leopold,  Ghetto 
novelist,  50- 

Korbi,  character  in  "  The  Gift 
of  Judah,"  214 

Krochmal.  scholar,  49 

Kuh,  M.  E.,  poet,  49 


Kulke,  Ghetto  novelist,  50 
Kunth,    tutor    of    the     Hum- 
boldts,  311 

La    Doctrina    Christiana,    at- 
tributed to  Santob,  174 
La  Fontaine,  and  Hebrew  fa- 
ble translations,  34,  88 
Landau.  Ezekiel,  Talmudist,47 
Laura  (Petrarch's)  in  "  Praise 

of  Women,"  223 
Layesharim    Jehilla/i  by  Luz- 

zatto,  240-241 
"  Lay  of   Zion "   by   Yehuda 

Halevi,  28-31,  210 
Lazarus   ben   David,  philoso- 
pher, 3(0,  350 

Lazarus,  Emma,  poetess,  140 
Lazarus,  M.,  scholar,  49 
Lecho   nodi,  Sabbath  song,  43 
Legend-making,  288-289 
Legends,  value  of,  289-292 
Lehmann,  M.,  Ghetto  novelist, 

So 

Leibnitz  and  Maimonides,  146 
Leibzoll,  tax,  294 
Lemech,    sons   of,    inventions 

of,  372 

Leo  de  Modena,  rabbi,  45,  128 
Leo    Hebraeus.       See     Judah 

Abrabanel 
Leon  di  Bannolas.     See  Levi 

ben  Gerson 
Lessing.  alluded  to,  246 

and  Mendelssohn,   299,  300, 

3f4 

as  fabulist,  88 
on  Yedaya  Penini,  40 
Letteris  M.  E.,  dramatist,  248 
'•  Letters  to  a  Christian  Friend 
on  the    F undamental 
Truths    of   Judaism/'    by 
Clementine      Rothschild, 
141 

Levi  ben    Abraham,    philoso- 
pher, 40 


394 


INDEX 


Levi  ben  Gerson,  philosopher,  ' 
42,  90-91 

Levi  (Henle),  Elise,  writer,  139 

Levi  of  Mayence,  founder  of 
German  synagogue  music, 
376 

Levin      (Varnhagen),     Rahel, 

alluded  to,  131,  346 
and  Judaism,  132 
and  the  emancipation  move- 
ment, 132-133 

Levita,  Elias.  See  Elias 
Levita 

Lewandowski,  musician,  work 
of,  370-37 1,  377-378 

"  Light  of  God  "  by  Chasdai 
Crescas,  42 

Lindo,  Abigail,  writer,  137 

Lithuania,  Jews  in,  282,  285 

Litte  of  Ratisbon,  historian, 
119 

Litteraturbriefe  by  Mendels- 
sohn, 301 

Litteraturgeschichte  der  svna- 
gogalen  Poesie  by  Zunz, 

336 
Lokman's     fables     translated 

into  Hebrew,  34 
Lonsano,  Menahem,  writer  on 

music,  376 

Lope  de  Vega,  alluded  to,  239 
Love  in  Hebrew  poetry,  122- 

123,  225 
Love  in  Jewish   and    German 

poetry,  186 
Lucian,  alluded  to,  18 
"  Lucinde  "  by  Friedrich  von 

Schlegel,  306 
Luis  de    Torres   accompanies 

Columbus,  96 
Luria,     Solomon,    Talmudist, 

46.  286 

Luther,  Martin,  and  Rashi,  84 
quoted,  377 

under  Jewish  influences,  98 
Luzzatto,      Moses      Chayyim, 

dramatist,  45,  239-241 


Luzzatto,  S.  D.,  scholar,  49, 137 

Maffei,  dramatist,  240 
Maggiditn,  itinerant  preachers, 

227 

"  Magic  Flute,  The,"  first  per- 
formance of,  247-248 
"Magic     Wreath,    The,"    by 

Grace  Aguilar,  134 
Maharil,   founder   of   German 

synagogue  music,  376 
Maimon,  Solomon,  and   Men- 
delssohn, 310 

Maimonides,    Moses,   philoso- 
pher, 34,  35,84 
and  Aristotle,  156 
and  Averroes,  163-164 
and  Ibn  Sina,  156 
and  modern  philosophy,  164 
and  scholasticism,   85,    156, 

164 

as  astronomer,  93 
career  of,  147-150 
in  France,  145-146 
medical  works  of,  153-154 
on  man's  attributes.  160-161 
on  prophecy,  161-162 
on  resurrection,  164-165 
on  revelation,  162 
on  the    attributes    of    God, 

I57-I58 
on   the    Mosaic   legislation, 

163 

philosophic  work  of,  154  ff. 
quoted,  152,  167 
religious  works  of,  150-153 
Maimunists,  39-40 
Makamat,   a    form   of   Arabic 

poetry,  34  (note) 
Malabar,  tfie  Ten  Tribes   in, 

259 

Malchuth,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Manasseh  ben   Israel,  author, 

47,  99-100 
and  Rembrandt,  102 
on  the  Ten  Tribes,  259 


INDEX 


395 


Manesse,    Rudiger,    compiler, 

183-184 

Mannheimer,  N.,  preacher,  49 
Manoello.     See  Immanuel  ben 

Solomon 

Mantino,  Jacob,  physician,  95 
Manuel,  of  Portugal,    alluded 

to,  97 

Margoles,  Jacob,  Kabbalist,  95 
Maria  de  Padilla,  mistress  of 

Pedro  I,  169 

Marie  de  France,  fabulist,  88 
Mar  Sutra  on  the  Ten  Tribes, 

253 

Maskal,  parable,  227 

Massichtoth,  Talmudic  treat- 
ises, 59 

Mausckeln,  Jewish  slang,  310— 

3' * 

Maximilian,  of  Austria,  candi- 
date for  the  Polish  crown, 
278 

Mechabberoth  by  Immaiiuel 
Romi,  2 19—220 

Medicine,  origin  of,  81 

Meier,  Ernest,  Bible  critic,  12 
quoted,  14 

Meir,  rabbi,  fabulist,  19,  m- 
112 

Meir  ben   Baruch,   Talmudist, 

36 

Meir  ben  Todros  ha-Levi,  quo- 
ted, 164-165 

Meissner,  Alfred,  recollections 
of,  of  Heine.  362-364 

Mekirath  Yoseph  by  Beermann, 
241-244 

Melo,  David  Abenator,  trans- 
lator, 47 

Mendel  Gibbor,  quoted,  272 

Mendels,  Edel,  historian,  120 

Mendelssohn,  Abraham,  son  of 
Moses  Mendelssohn,  307, 
308 

Mendelssohn,  Dorothea,daugh- 
ter  of  Moses  Mendelssohn, 
J31'  305-306 


Mendelssohn,  Henrietta, 
daughter  of  Moses  Men- 
delssohn, 306-308 

Mendelssohn,  Joseph,  son  of 
Moses  Mendelssohn,  305, 

3°7 

Mendelssohn,  Moses,  philoso- 
pher, 48 

and  Lessing,  299,  300,  314 
and  Maimonides,  164 
as  critic,  301-302 
as  reformer,  316 
as  translator,  40 
children  of,  304 
disciples  of,  309 
friends  of,  299,  314-315 
in  Berlin,  293,  296  ff 
marriage  of,  303-304 
quoted,  300,  301 
Mendelssohn,  Nathan,  son  of 

Moses  Mendelssohn,  307 
Mendelssohn,  Recha,  daughter 
of     Moses    Mendelssohn, 

3°7 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.Felix, 

3°7,  3°8  . 

Mendez,  David  Franco,  dram- 
atist, 244 
Meneketh  Ribka,  by    Rebekah 

Tiktiner,  119 
Menelek,  son  of  the  Queen  of 

Sheba,  262 

Merope  by  Maffei,  240 
^/^^•/^,Falasha  synagogue, 265 
Mesopotamia,  the  Ten  Tribes 

in,  259 

Messer  Leon,  poet.  223 
Meyer,  Marianne,  alluded  to, 

132 

Meyer,  Rachel,  writer,  139 
Meyer,  Sarah,  alluded  to,  132 
Meyerbeer,  alluded  to,  245 
Midrash,  commentary,  20,  53- 

54 
Midrash   Rabba,    a    Talmudic 

work,  2  i 
Migdat  Oz  by  Luzzatto,  239 


INDEX 


Minchath  Yehuda  Sonch  ha- 
Nashim,  by  Judah  ibn 
Sabbatai',  214-216 

Minnedienst  absent  from  Jew- 
ish poetry,  122 

Minnesingers,  182 

Miriam,  as  poetess,  ic6 

Miriam,  Rashi's  granddaugh- 
ter, 118 

Mishle  Sandabar,  romance,  88 

Mishna,  the,  commentary  on, 

60 

compilation  of,  58 
in  poetry,  201 

Mishnek  Torah  by  Maimoni- 
des,  152-153 

Missionaries  in  Abyssinia, 
263-267 

Mohammedanism,  rise  of,  77- 
78 

Monte fiore,  Charlotte,  writer, 

U3 

Montefiore,  Judith,  philan- 
thropist, 133 

Montpellier,  "  Guide  of  the 
Perplexed  "  burnt  at,  155 
Jews  at  academy  of,  86,  92 

Moreh  Ncbuchitn  by  Maimon- 
ides,  146,  154,  161-162 

Morgenstern,  Lina,  writer,  139 

Morgenstunden  by  Mendels- 
sohn, 305 

Moritz,  friend  of  Henriette 
Herz,  313,  314 

Morpurgo,     Rachel,     poetess, 

i 37-I38 

Mosaic  legislation,  the,  Mai- 
monides  on,  163 

"Mosaic"  style  in  Hebrew 
poetry,  201-202 

Mosenthal,  S.  H.,  Ghetto  nov- 
elist, 49.  50 
Dingelstedt  on,  319 

Moser.  Moses,  friend  of  Heine, 

324.  346 
letters  to,  350,  352 


Moses,  prophet,  characterized 

by  Heine,  365-366 
in  Africa,  255 

Moses  de  i  oucy,  Talmudist,36 

Moses  ibn  Ezra,  poet,  24,  32, 
202-206,  207 

Moses,  Israel  teacher  of  Men- 
delssohn, 297-298 

Moses  of  Narbonne,  philoso- 
pher, 42 

Moses      Rieti,     the     Hebrew 
Dante,  35,  124 

Moses  Sephardi.     See  Petrus 
Alphonsus 

Mosessohn,     Miriam,     writer, 

138 

Munk,  Solomon,  scholar,  49 
and  Gabirol,  26,  83 
translates  Moreh  Nebuchim, 

146,  155 
Miinster,    Sebastian,    Hebrew 

scholar,  44,  95 

Muscato,  Judah,  preacher,  376 
Music  among  Jews,  372-376 
Mussafia,  Benjamin,  author,  47 

Nachinanides.  exegete,  39 

Nagara,  Israel,  poet,  43 

"  Names  of  the   Jews,    The," 

by  Zunz,  335 
Nasi,  Joseph,  statesman,  99 

and  the  Polish  election,  287 
"Nathan  the   Wise"  and  tol- 
erance, 185,  310-311 
Nazarenes,  defined  by  Heine, 

359 

Nefesh,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Neilak  prayer,  A,  104 
Neo-Hebraic    literature.     See 

Jewi>h  literature 
Nero,  alluded  to,  232 
A'es'.ama,  Kabbalistic  term,  4E 
Nesirim,  Falasha  monks,  265 
Nestorians      and      the      Ten 

Tribes,  259 

Neto,  David,  philosopher,  47 
Neuda,  Fanny,  writer,  140 


INDEX 


397 


Neunzig,    Joseph,   on    Heine, 

343 
"New      Song,"      anonymous 

poem,  224 

Nezach,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Nicolai,friend  of  Mendelssohn, 

299,  300,  313,314 
Nicolas  de  Lyra,  exegete,  84 
Noah,  Mordecai,  and  the  Ten 

Tribes,  259 

Noldeke,  Theodor,  Bible  crit- 
ic, 12 

Nomologia,  by  Isaac  Aboab,  45 
Numbers,  book  of,  quoted,  71 
Nune.>,  Manuela,  de  Almeida, 
poetess,  130 

Obadiah    Bertinoro,    Talmucl- 

ist,  43 
Obadiah    Sforno,    teacher    of 

Reuchlin,  95 

Offenbach,  J.,  alluded  to,  245 
Old  Testament,  the,  Africa  in,1 

255 
document  hypothesis  of,  13 

humor  in,  191,  193 
in  poetry,  201 
interpretation  of,  54 
literary  value  of,  14-16,  73- 

74 

quoted  by  Jesus,  13 
study  of,  12-13,  l8 
time  of  compilation  of,  16 
time  of  composition  0^13-14 
translations  of,  16,  47,  48,  80 
Oliver  y  Fullano,  de,  Nicolas, 

author,  129 
"  On    Rabbinical    Literature  " 

by  Zurtz,  328 
Ophir,      Hebrew     name      for 

Africa,  255 
Ophra    in    Yehuda    Halevi's 

poems,  207 
Oppenheim,    David,    rabbi  at 

Prague,  244 

Ormus,    island,    explored    by 
Jews,  96 


Ottenheimer,  Henriette,  poet- 
ess, 49,  138-139 

Otto  von  Botenlaube,  minne- 
singer, 182 

Owl,  character  in  "  The  Gift 
of  Judah,"  214 

Padua,  University  of,and  Elias 
del  Medigo,  94 

Palestine  described,  93 

Palquera,  Shemtob,  philoso- 
pher, 40 

Pan,  Taube,  poetess,  120 

"Paradise,  The"  by  Moses 
Rieti,  35 

Parallax  computed  by  Isaac 
Israeli,  93 

Parzival,     by     Wolfram     von 

Eschenbach,  185 
Jewish  contributions  to,  35, 

87 
Pastor  Fido  by   Guarini,   129, 

240 

Paul  III,  pope,  alluded  to,  95 

Paula  dei  Mansi,  Talmudist, 
116-117 

Pedro  I,  of  Castile,  and  Santob 
de  Carrion,  87,  169,  170 

Pedro  di  Carvallho,  navigator, 
96 

Pekah,  king,  alluded  to,  250 

Pensa,  Joseph,  de  la  Vega, 
dramatist,  237-238 

Pentateuch,  the   Jewish    Ger- 
man translation  of,  100 
Mendelssohn's  commentary 
on,  309 

Peregrinatio  Hierosolymitana 
by  Radzi will, 280 

Persra,  Jewish  literature  in,  90 

Pesikta,  a  Talmudic  work,  21 

Petachya  of  Ratisbon,  trav- 
eller, 37,  117 

Petrarch,  translated  into  Span- 
ish. 9S 

Petrus  Alphonsus,  writer,  89, 


398 


INDEX 


Peurbach,  humanist,  100 
Philipson,  L  ,  journalist,  49 
Philo,  philosopher,  17 
Philo  the  Elder,  writer,  17 
Phokylides  (pseudo-),  Neopla- 

toiiist,  17 
Physicians,  Jewish,  81,  95,  97, 

179 
Pickelhering,   a   character    in 

Me ki 'rat 'It  Yoseph^  241 
Pico  della  Mirandola  alluded 

to,  94 

and  Levi  ben  Gerson,  91 
and  the  Kabbala,  44 
Pilpul,  Talmudic  method,  46 
Pinchas,  rabbi,    chronicler  of 

the  Saul  Wahl  story,  273, 

277, 280 
/*/#/,  a  form  of  liturgic  Hebrew 

poetry,  24.  198 
"  Plant  Lore  "  by  Dioscorides, 

82 

Pliny,  alluded  to,  250 
Pnie,    Samson,  contributes  to 

Parzival,  35,  87 
Poesies  diverses  by   Frederick 

the  Great,  301 
Poland,    election   of  king   in, 

278-279 

Jews  in,  286-288 
Pollak,  Jacob,  Talmudist,  46 
Popert,  Meyer  Samson,  ances- 
tor of  Heine,  341 
Popiel,  of  Poland,  alluded  to, 

285 
Poppaea,  empress,  alluded  to, 

232 

"  Praise  of   Women,"    anony- 
mous work,  34 
"  Praise  of  Women,"  by  David 

ben  Yehuda,  223 
"Praise  unto  the  Righteous," 

by  Luzzatto,  240-241 
"  Prince     and     the    Dervish, 

The,"  by  Ibn  Chasdai,  35 
Printing,  influence  of,  on  Jew- 
ish literature,  94 


"  Prisoners  of  Hope,  The,"  by 
Joseph  Pensa,  237-238 

Prophecy  defined  by  Maimon- 
ides,  161-162 

Proudhon  anticipated  by  Judah 
ibn  Tibbon,  39 

Psalm  cxxxiii.,  71-72 

Psalms,   the.    translated    into 

Jewish  German,  120 
into  Persian,  90 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus  and  the 
Septuagint,  16 

Ptolemy's  "Almagest"  trans- 
lated, 79 

Rab,  rabbi,  19 

Rabbinical      literature.       See 

Jewish  literature 
Rabbinowicz,  Bertha,  138 
Kabbi  von  Bacharach  by  Heine, 

50,  348,  349 
Rachel  (Bellejeune),  Talmud- 

ist,  118 

Radziwill,    Nicholas    Christo- 
pher, and  Saul  Wahl,  274- 

276,  279-280 

"Radziwill  Bible,  The,"  280 
Rambam,    Jewish    name     for 

Maimonides,  146 
Rainier  and  Jews,  311,  313 
Rappaport,  Moritz,  poet,  49 
Rappaport,  S.,  scholar,  49 
Rashi.       See      Solomon     ben 

Isaac 
Rausnitz,    Rachel,    historian, 

121 

Ravenna    and    Jewish    finan- 
ciers, IOI-IO2 
"  Recapitulation  of  the  Law  " 

by  Maimonides,  152-153 
Recke,    von    der,    Elise,    and 

Mendelssohn,  215 
Red  Sea,  coasts  of,  explored 

by  Jews,  96 

Reichardt.  musician,  313 
Reinmar     von      Brennenberg, 

miuiie  singer,  182 


INDEX 


399 


Reisebilder  by  Heine,  353 
Rembrandt  illustrates  a  Jew- 
ish book, 102 
Renaissance,     the,     and     the 

Jews,  43-44,  74~75'  94'95» 

223,  224 
Renaissance,  the  Jewish,  101, 

227,  293-295 
Renan,  Ernest,  alluded  to,  163, 

191 
Respublika  Babinska,  a  Polish 

society,  281-282 
Respuestas  by  Antonio  di  Mon- 

toro,  180 
Resurrection,  Maimonides  on, 

164-165 
Reuchlin,    John,    and    Jewish 

scholars.  91,  94-95 
and  the  Talmud,  44 
quoted,  89 

Revelation    denned    by    Mai- 
monides, 162 
Richard    I,    of   England,    and 

Maimonides,  149 
Riemer  quoted,  358 
Riesser,     Gabriel,    journalist, 

49,  291 
"Righteous    Brethren,    The" 

an  Arabic  order,  79 
Rintelsohn,  teacher  of  Heine, 

344 

Ritter,  Heinrich,  on  Maimoni- 
des, 146 
"Ritual     of    the     Synagogue, 

The,"  by  Zunz.  336 
Ritus  des  svnago%alen    Gottes- 

dienstes  by  Zunz,  336 
Robert   of    Anjou,    patron   of 

Hebrew  learning,  92 
Robert  of   Naples,  patron   of 

Hebrew  learning,  89 
Rodenberg,  Julius,  quoted,  144 
Romanelli,  Samuel  L.,  drama 

tist,  244,  248 

Komaiizen)  by  Heine,  9.  27,  365 
Rossi,  Solomon,  musician,  376 


Rothschild,    Anna,    historian, 

142 

Charl  otte,philanthropist,  14 1 
Clementine,  writer,  141-142 
Constance,  historian,  142 
Rothschild    family,  women  of 

the,  140-142 

Ruach,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Riickert,  poet,  alluded  to,  139 
"  Rules  for  the   Shoeing   and 
Care  of  Horses  in  Royal 
Stables,"  translated,  91 
Riippell,  explorer,  quoted,  263 

Sa'adia,  philosopher,  22,  80-81 

Sachs,  M.,  scholar,  49 

Saisset,  E.,on  Maimonides,  146 

"Sale   of    Joseph,    The"   by 
Beermann,  241-244 

Salerno,  Jews  at  academy  of, 
86,92 

Salomon,  Annette,  writer,  137 

Salomon,  G.,  preacher,  49 

Salomon,  Leah,  wife  of  Abra- 
ham Mendelssohn,  308 

Salon,  the  German,  established 
by  Jews,  312 

Salonica,  Spanish  exiles  in,  43 

Sambation,  fabled  stream,  249, 
258 

Samson,    history    of,    dramat- 
ized, 236 
humor  in  the,  191,  192 

"  Samson  and  the  Philistines  " 
by  Luzzatto,  239 

"  Samsonschool  "   at    Wolfen- 
buttel,  321 

Samuel,  astronomer,  76 

Samuel,  physician,  19 

Samuel   ben    Ali,    Talmudist, 
117 

Samuel  ben  Me'ir,  exegete,  36, 
172 

Samuel    ibn    Nagdela,    grand 
vizir,  98 

Samuel  Judah,  father  of  Saul 
Wahl,  273,  274 


400 


INDEX 


Samuel   the    Pious,    hymnolo- 

gist,  36 
Santillana,  de,  on    Santob  de 

Carrion,  173 

Santo.    See  Santob  de  Carrion 
Santob  de  Carrion,  troubadour 
34,  87,    169-170,   174-175' 
188 

characterized,  173 
character  of,  178 
quoted,  169,    175-176,    177- 

178 
relation  of,  to  Judaism,  176- 

177 

Saphir,  M.  G.,  quoted,  355 
Sarah,    a   character   in   Rabbi 

von  Bacharach,  348 
Sarastro,  played  by  a  Jew,  247 
Satirists,  213-223 
Saul  Juditsch.    See  Saul  Wahl 
Saul    Wahl,    in    the    Russian 

archives,  282-284 
relics  of,  278 
story  of,  273-277 
why  so  named,  276 
Savasorda.    See  Abraham  ben 

Chiya 

Schadow,  sculptor,  313 
Schallmeier,  teacher  of  Heine, 

342 

Schlegel,  vcn,  Friedrich,  hus- 
band of  Dorothea  Men- 
delssohn, 306 

Schleiden,  M.  J.,   quoted,  28, 

74-75 
Schleiermacher  and  the  Jews, 

313,  314,  323 

Schopenhauer,  Arthur,  antici- 
pated by  Gabirol,  27 
on  I  leine,  357-358 
Sckutzj'ude,  a   privileged  Jew, 

302-403 

Scotists  and  Gabirol,  26 
Scotus,  Duns,  philosopher,  82 
Scotus,  Michael,  scholar, 40. 85 
Scribes,  the  compilers  of  the 
Old  Testament.  16 


"  Seal  of  Perfection,  The,"  by 
Abraham  Bedersi,  171 

Sechel    Hapoel,    Active    Intel- 
lect, 159 

Seder  described  by  Heine,  345 

Scfer  Asaf,  medical  fragment, 
81 

Sefer  ha-Hechal  by  Moses  Rie- 
ti,  124 

Sefer  Sha'ashuim    by    Joseph 
ibn  Sabara,  214 

Sefiroth,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 

Selicha,  a  character  in  "The 
Sale  of  Joseph,"  241 

Selicha^  a  form  of  Hebrew  lit- 
urgical poetry,  24,  25,  198 

Septuagint,  contents  of  the,  16 

berach,  hero  of  "The  Gift  of 
Judah,"  214-216 

"Seven  Wise  Masters,  The," 
romance,  88 

Seynensis,  Henricus,   quoted, 
52 

Shachna,  Solomon,  Talmudist, 
alluded  to,  286 

Shalet,  a  Jewish  dish,  360-361 

Shalmaneser,  conquers  Israel, 

250 
obelisk  of,  261 

Shammai,  rabbi,  18 

Shapiro,    Miriam,   Talmudist, 
117 

Shebach  Nashim  by  David  ben 
Yehuda,  223 

Shem-Tob.      See    Santob    de 
Carrion 

Sherira,  Talmudist,  22 

"  Shields  of  Heroes,"  by  Jacob 
ben  Elias,  224 

"  Shulammith,"    Jewish    Ger- 
man drama,  247 

Shulchan  A  ruck,  code,  43 

Sigisinund  I,  Jews  under,  285, 
286  ' 

Sigisinund  III,  and  Saul  Wahl, 
283-284 


INDEX 


4OI 


Simon  ben  Yochai,  supposed 

author  of  the  Kabbala,  19 

Sirkes,  T^el,  Talmudist,  46 

"Society  for   Jewish   Culture 

ana   Science,"  in  Berlin, 

324,  346 

Soferim,  Scribes,  50 

Solomon,  king,  alluded  to,  250 
and  Africa,  255 

Solomon  Ashkenazi,  diplomat, 
96,  286-287 

Solomon  ben  Aderet,  Talmud- 
ist, 40 

Solomon  ben   Isaac    (Rashi), 

exegete,  36,  84,  137 
essay  on,  by  Zunz,  329 
family  of,  118 

Solomon  ben  Sakbel,  satirist 

34,  213 
ion  Yn 


Solomon  Yitzchaki.     See  Sol 

omon  ben  Isaac 
"Song   of    Joy"   by   Yehuda 

Halevi,  207 
"Song  of  Songs,"  a  dramatic 

idyl,  229 
alluded  to,  207 
characterized,  192-193 
epitomized,  223 
explained,  172 
in  later  poetry,  202 
quoted,  186 

Sonnenthal,  Adolf,  actor,  246 
Soudan,  the,  Moses  in,  255 
"Sou.ce    of    Life,    The"   by 

Gabirol,  82-83 
"South,  the,"  Talmud   name 

for  Africa,  255 
Spalding,  friend  of  Henriette 

Herz,  313 
« Spener's      Journal, 

editor  of,  330 
Spinoza,    Benedict    (Baruch), 

philosopher,  47,  100 
and  Maimonides,    145*    I4°i 

influenced  by  Chasdai  Cres- 
cas,  94 


Spinoza,  Benedict  (continued), 
under  Kabbalistic  influ- 
ence, 99 

Spirit  of  Judaism,  The,"  by 
Grace  Aguilar,  134 

Stein,  L.,  poet,  49 

Steinheim,  scholar,  49 

Steinschneider,    M.,    scholar, 

37,  49 

Steinthal,  H.,  scholar,  49 
Stephen   Bathori,   of   Poland, 

278,  282,  287 
Studie     zur     Bibelkritik      by 

Zunz,  337 
Sullam,  Sara  Copia,  poetess, 

44,  124-128 

Surrenhuys,  scholar,  48 
Susskind  von  Trimberg,  mm- 
nesinger,  35,  87,  182,  184 
and  Judaism,  187 
character  of,  188 
poetry  of,  185-186 
quoted,     182-183,    187-188, 

188-189 
Synagogale  Poesie  des  Mittelal- 

ters,  by  Zunz,  335 
« Synagogue     Poetry    of     the 
Middle  Ages"   by    Zunz, 
336 

Syria,  the  Ten  Tribes  in,  259 
Syrian  and  Jewish  poetry,  80 
Syrian  Christians  as  scientific 
mediators,  78 


Tachkemoni  by  Yehuda  Char- 

isi,  211 
Talmud,  the,  burnt,  40,  44 

character  of,  52-53 

compilers  of,  56,  57~58 

composition  of,  16 

contents    of,    S9~6°'   68-?°' 
76-77 

in  poetry,  201 

on  Africa,  254 

on  the  Ten  Tribes,  253 

origin  of,  53~54 


402 


INDEX 


Talmud,  the  (continued),  study 

of,  17-18 

translations  of,  60 
woman  in,  110-114 
women  and  children  in,  63- 

64 
Talmud,  the  Babylonian,  54 

compiler  of,  17 

Talmud,  the  Jerusalem,  com- 
piler of,  17 
Talmudists,   22,  36,  40,  43,  46, 

47,  117,  286 
Talmudists  (women),  116, 117, 

118 

Tamar,  a  character  in  Imman- 
uel  Romi's  poem,  221-222 
Tanatm,  Learners,  56,  57 
Tanchuma,  a  Talmudic  work, 

J9 

Targum,  the,  in  poetry,  201 
Telescope,  the,  used  by  Gam- 
aliel, 77 
Teller,    friend     of    Henrietta 

Herz,  313 
Ten  Tribes,  the,  English  views 

of,  260-262 
Irish  legend  of,  261 
the  prophets  on,  251-252 
the     Samaritan    Hexateuch 

on,  252 
the  supposed  homes  of,  256- 

262 

the  Talmud  on,  253 
Tertullian  quoted,  233 
Theatre,  the,  and  the  rabbis, 

230-234 

Theodore,    Negus    of    Abys- 
sinia, 263,  267 
Theorica  by  Peurbach,  100 
Thomists  and  Gabirol,  24 
'•  Thoughts  suggested  by  Bible 
Texts"  by   Louise  Roth- 
schild, 141 

Tifereth,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Tiglath-Pileser    conquers    Is- 
rael, 250 


Tiktiner,  Rebekah,  scholar, 
119 

"  Till  Eulenspiegel,"the  Jew- 
ish German,  101 

Tolerance  in  Germany,  185, 
189 

"  Touchstone  "  by  Kalonymos 
ben  Kalonymos,  33,  216- 
219 

"  Tower  of  Victory  "  by  Luz- 
zatto,  239 

Tragedy,  nature  of,  195 

Travellers,  Jewish,  80 

"Tristan  and  Isolde"  com- 
pared with  the  Mechabbe 
roth,  220 

Troubadour  poetry  and  the 
Jews,  171-173 

Troubadours,  223 

"  Truth's  Campaign,"  anony- 
mous work,  32 

Turkey,  Jews  in,  98 

•'  Two' Tables  of  the  Testimo- 
ny, The,"  by  Isaiah  Hur- 
witz,  43 

Tycho  de  Brahe  and  Jewish 
astronomers,  92 

Uhden,  von,  and  Mendelssohn, 

302 

Uhlaud,  poet,  alluded  to,  139 
Ulla,  itinerant  preacher,  114 
"  Upon  the  Philosophy  of 

Maimonides,"  prize  essay, 

US 

Usque,  Samuel,  poet,  44 
Usque,  Solomon,  poet,  98,  235 

"Vale  of  Weeping,  The,"  by 

Joseph  Cohen,  44 
Varnhagen,  Rahel.   See  Levin, 

Rahel 
Varnhagen  von  Ense,  German 

litterateur,  312 
Vecinho,  Joseph,  astronomer, 

96 
Veit,  Philip,  painter,  308 


INDEX 


403 


Veit,  Simon,  husband  of  Dor- 
othea Mendelssohn,  306 
Venino,  alluded  to,  302 
Venus  of  Milo  and  Heine,  362 
Vespasian  and  Jochanan  ben 
Zakka'i,  57 

Walther  von  der  Vogelweide, 

minnesinger,  182,  189 
Wandering  Jew,  the,  myth  of, 

35° 
"  War  of  Wealth  and  Wisdom, 

The,"  satire,  34 
"Water    Song"    by    Gabirol, 

2OO-2OI 

Weil,  Jacob,  Talmudist,  102 

Weill,  Alexander,  and  Heine, 
363-364 

Weltschmerz  in  Gabirol' s  po- 
etry, 199 
in  Heine's  poetry,  357 

Wesseli,  musician,  313 

Wessely,     Naphtali    Hartwig, 
commentator,  48,  309 

Wieland,  poet,  alluded  to,  314 

Wihl,  poet,  49 

Wine,  creation  of,  197-198 

Withold,   grandduke,  and  the 
Lithuanian  Jews,  282,  284 

Wohllerner,    Yenta,    poetess, 
138 

Wohlwill,  Immanuel,  friend  of 
Zunz,  letter  to,  325 

Wolfenbuttel,  Jews'  free  school 
at,  320-221 

Wolff,  Hebrew  scholar,  48 

Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  min- 
nesinger, 182,  185,  189 

Woman,  creation  of,  197 
in  Jewish  annals,  no 
in  literature,  106-107 
in  the  Talmud,  64,  110-114 
mental     characteristics     of, 

I2I-I22 

satirized  and  defended,  223- 

224 
services  of,  to  Judaism,  1 1 5- 

116 


"Woman's  Friend"  by  Ye- 
daya  Penini,  216 

Women,  Jewish,  in  the  eman- 
cipation movement,  133, 

*39 

"  Women  of   Israel,  The  "  by 

Grace  Aguilar,  134 
"  Women's  Shield,"  by  Judah 

Tommo,  224 
"World   as    Will    and    Idea, 

The,"   by    Schopenhauer, 

357 
Xemona.     See  Kasmune 

Yaltha,  wife  of  Rabbi  Nach- 
inan,  113-114 

Yechiel  ben  Abraham,  finan- 
cier, 99 

Yechiel  dei  Mansi,  alluded  to, 
116 

Yedaya  Penini,  poet,  40,  216 

Yehuda  ben  Astruc,  scientist, 
92 

Yehuda  ben  Zakkai  quoted,  68 

Yehuda   Charisi,  poet,  32,  34 

(note),  210-213 
on  Gabirol,  27 
quoted,  214 
traveller,  37 

Yehuda  Chayyug,  alluded  to, 

257 
Yehuda  Hakohen,  Talmudist, 

36 
Yehuda    Halevi,   as    philoso 

pher,  31,34 

as  poet,  24,  27-28,  206-210 
daughter  of,  117 
Yehuda  Romano, translator, 90 
Yehuda  Sabbatai,  satirist,  34, 

214 
Yehuda   the     Prince,    Mishna 

compiler,  19,  58 
lament  over,  65-66 
Yemen,  Judaism  in,  256 
Yesod,  Kabbalistic  term,  41 
Yesod  Olam  by  Moses  Zacuto, 

238-239 


404 


INDEX 


Yfzira,  Kabbalistic  term,  4 1 
"  Yosippon,"      an     historical 

compilation,  120,  249,  250, 

321 
Yucatan  and  the  Ten  Tribes, 

2  59 

Zacuto,  Abraham,  astronomer, 

42,  96-97 
Zacuto,  Moses,  dramatist,  238- 

239 

Zarzal,  Moses,  physician,  179 
Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  mor- 

genlandischen  Gesellschaft, 

Zunz  contributor  to,  337 
Zeltner,     J.    G.,    on    Rebekah 

Tiktiner,  1 19 

Zerubbabel,  alluded  to,  253 
Zohar,  the,  astronomy  in,  91 

authorship  of,  39 
Zollner,    friend    of    Henriette 

Herz,  313 


Zunz,  Adelheid,  wife  of  Leo- 
pold Zunz,  337,  352 

Zunz,  Leopold,  scholar,  25,48 
and  religious  reform,  335 
as  journalist,  330 
as  pedagogue,  324 
as  politician,  330-332 
as  preacher,  322-323 
characterized      by       Heine, 

327-328 

described  by  Jost,  320 
education  of,  320-322 
friend  of  Heine,  346 
importance  of,  for  Judaism, 

338 

in  Berlin,  318-319 
quoted,  11-12,  119,  323,  325- 

327,    33°'    331'   332>   334, 

336'  37i 
style  of,  338 
"  Zur  Geschichte  und  Littera- 

tur  "  by  Zunz,  337 


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OF  THE  GHETTO 


BEING 

PICTURES  OF  A  FECULIflR  PEOPLE. 


BY  I.  ZANGWTLI,. 


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portrayed  is  unquestionable  truth. — Jewish  Exponent. 

Many  of  the  pictures  will  be  recognized  at  once  by  those  who  have 
visited  London  or  are  at  all  familiar  with  the  life  of  that  city.— Detroit 
Free  Pret-s. 

It  is  a  succession  of  sharply-penned  realistic  portrayals. — Baltimore 
American. 


TWO  VOLUMES. 
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SOME  JEWISH  WOMEN. 


HENRY  ZIRNDORF. 


OPINIONS   OF   THE  PRESS  s 

Moral  purity,  nobility  of  soul,  self-sacrifice,  deep  affection  and  devotion, 
sorrow  and  happiness  all  enter  into  these  biographies,  and  the  interest 
felt  in  their  perusal  is  added  to  by  the  warmth  and  sympathy  which  the 
author  displays  and  by  his  cultured  and  vigorous  style  of  writing.— 
Philadelphia  Record. 

His  methods  are  at  once  a  simplification  and  expansion  of  Josephus  and 
the  Talmud, stories  simply  told,  faithful  presentation  of  the  virtues,  andnot 
infrequently  the  vices,  *of  characters  sometimes  legendary,  generally 
real.—  Sew  York  World. 

The  lives  here  given  are  interesting  in  all  cases,  and  are  thrilling  in 
some  cases. — Public  Opinion  (Washington,  D.  C.). 

The  volume  is  one  of  universal  historic  interest,  and  is  a  portrayal  of 
the  early  trials  of  Jewish  women. — Boston  Herald. 

Though  the  chapters  are  brief,  they  are  clearly  the  result  of  deep  and 
thorough  research  that  gives  the  modest  volume  an  historical  and  critical 
value.— Philadelphia  Times. 

It  is  an  altogether  creditable  undertaking  that  the  present  author  has 
brought  to  so  giatifying  a  close— the  silhouette  drawing  of  Biblical 
female  character  against  the  background  of  those  ancient  historic  times. 
—Minneapolis  Tribune. 

Henry  Zirndorf  ranks  high  as  a  student,  thinker  and  writer,  and  this 
little  book  will  go  far  to  encourage  the  study  of  Hebrew  literature.— 
Denver  Republican. 

The  book  is  gracefully  written,  and  has  many  strong  touches  of  char- 
acterizations.—Tofedo  Blade. 

The  sketches  are  based  upon  available  history  and  are  written  in  clear 
narrative  style.— Galveston  Aoi-s. 

Henry  Zirndorf  has  done  a  piece  of  work  of  much  literary  excellence 
in  "  SOME  JEWISH  WOMEN."— St.  Louis  Post- Dif patch. 

It  is  an  attractive  bo-k  in  appearance  and  full  of  curious  biographical 
research. — Baltimore  Sun. 

The  writer  shows  careful  research  and  conscientiousness  in  making 
his  narratives  historically  correct  and  in  giving  to  each  heroine  her  just 
due.— American  Israelite  (Cincinnati). 


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HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 

BY 

PROFESSOR  H.  GRAETZ 


Vol.     i.     From  the  Earliest  Period  to  the  Death  of  Simon 

the  Maccabee  (135  B.  C.  E.). 
Vol.    II.     From  the  Reign  of  Hyrcanus  to  the  Completion 

of  the  Babylonian  Talmud  (500  C.  E.). 
Vol.  III.     From  the  Completion  of  the  Babylonian  Talmud 

to  the  Banishment  of  the  Jews  from  England  (1290 

C.  E.). 
Vol.    IV.     From  the  Rise  of  the  Kabbala  ( 1270  C.  E.)  to  the 

Permanent  Settlement  of   the  Marranos  in  Holland 

(1618  C.  E.). 
Vol.     V.     In  preparation. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 

Professor  Graetz's  History  is  universally  accepted  as  a  conscien- 
tious and  reliable  contribution  to  religious  literature.— Philadelphia 
Telegraph. 

Aside  from  his  value  as  a  historian,  he  makes  his  pages  charming 
by  all  the  little  side-lights  and  illustrations  which  only  come  at  the 
beck  of  genius — Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

The  writer,  who  is  considered  by  far  the  greatest  of  Jewish  his- 
torians, is  the  pioneer  in  his  field  of  work— history  without  theology 
or  polemics.  .  .  .  His  monumental  work  promises  to  be  the 
standard  by  which  all  other  Jewish  histories  are  to  be  measured  by 
Jews  for  many  years  to  come.— Baltimore  American. 

Whenever  the  subject  constrains  the  author  to  discuss  the  Christ- 
ian religion,  he  is  animated  by  a  spirit  not  unworthy  of  the  philoso- 
phic and  high-minded  hereof  Lessing's  "Nathan  the  Wise."— New 
York  Sun. 

It  is  an  exhaustive  and  scholarly  work,  for  which  the  student  of 
history  has  reason  to  be  devoutly  thankful.  .  .  .  It  will  be  wel- 
comed also  for  the  writer's  excellent  style  and  for  the  almost 
gossipy  way  in  which  he  turns  aside  from  the  serious  narrative  to 
illumine  his  paeres  with  illustrative  descriptions  of  life  and  scenery. 
—Detroit  Free  Press. 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  the  compilatipn  is  its  succinctness 
and  rapidity  of  narrative,  while  at  the  same  time  necessary  detail 
is  not  sacrificed. — Minneapolis  Tribune. 

Whatever  controversies  the  work  may  a  waken,  of  its  noble  schol- 
arship there  can  be  no  question.— Richmond  Dispatch. 

If  one  desires  to  study  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  under  the 
direction  of  a  scholar  and  pleasant  writer  who  is  in  sympathy  with 
his  subject  because  he  is  himself  a  Jew,  he  should  resort  to  the 
volumes  of  Graetz.—  Review  of  Reviews  (New  York). 


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SABBATH   HOURS 

THOUGHTS 

BY  LIEBMSN  RDLER 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS 

Rabbi  Adler  was  a  man  of  strong  and  fertile  mind,  and  his  sermons 
are  eminently  readable.— Sunday  School  Times. 

As  one  turns  from  sermon  to  sermon,  he  gathers  a  wealth  of  pre- 
cept which,  if  he  would  practice,  he  would  make  both  himself  and 
others  happier.  We  mierht  quote  from  every  page  some  noble 
utterance  or  sweet  thought  well  worthy  of  the  cherishing  by  either 
Jew  or  Christian.— Richmond  Dispatch. 

The  topics  discussed  are  in  the  most  instances  practical  in  their 
nature.  All  are  instructive,  and  passages  of  rare  eloquence  are  of 
frequent  occurrence. — San  Francisco  Call. 

The  sermons  are  si  mple  and  careful  studies,  sometimes  of  doctrine, 
but  more  often  of  teaching  and  precept.— Chicago  Times. 

He  combined  scholarly  attainment  with  practical  experience,  and 
these  sermons  cover  a  wide  ranare  of  subject.  Some  of  them  are 
singularly  modern  in  tone. — Indianapolis  Aeio'. 

They  are  modern  sermons,  dealing  with  the  problems  of  the  day, 
and  convey  the  interpretation  which  these  problems  should  receive 
in  the  light  of  the  Old  Testament  history.— Boston  Herald. 

While  this  book  is  not  without  interest  in  those  communities 
where  there  is  no  scarcity  of  religious  teaching  and  influence,  it 
cannot  fail  to  be  particularly  so  in  those  communities  where  there 
is  but  little  Jewish  teaching.— Baltimore  American. 

The  sermons  are  thoughtful  and  earnest  in  tone  and  draw  many 
forcible  and  pertinent  lessons  from  the  Old  Testament  records.— 
Syracuse  Herald. 

They  are  saturated  with  Bible  lore,  butevery  incident  taken  from 
the  Old  Testament  is  made  to  illustrate  some  truth  in  modern  life. 
—San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

They  are  calm  and  conservative,  .  .  .  applicable  in  their  essen- 
tial meaning  to  the  modern  religious  needs  of  Gentile  as  well  as 
Jew.  In  style  they  are  eminently  clear  and  direct.— Review  of 
Reviews  (New  York). 

Able,  forcible,  helpful  thoughts  upon  themes  most  essential  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  family,  society  and  the  state.— Public  Opinion 
(Washington,  D.  C.). 

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PAPERS 

OF  THE 

Jewish  Women's  Congress 

Held  at  Chicago,  September,  1893 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS 

This  meeting  was  held  during  the  first  week  of  September,  and 
was  marked  by  the  presentation  of  some  particularly  interesting 
addresses  and  plans.  This  volume  is  a  complete  report  of  the 
sessions.— Chicago  Times. 

The  collection  in  book  form  of  the  papers  read  at  the  Jewish 
Women's  Congress  .  .  .  makes  an  interesting  and  valuable  book, 
of  the  history  and  affairs  of  the  Jewish  women  of  America.— 
St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch. 

A  handsome  and  valuable  souvenir  of  an  event  of  great  signifi- 
cance to  the  people  of  the  Jewish  faith,  and  of  much  interest  and 
value  to  intelligent  and  well  informed  people  of  all  faiths.— Kansas 
City  Times. 

The  Congress  was  a  branch  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  and 
was  a  great  success,  arousing  the  interest  of  Jews  and  Christians 
alike,  and  bringing  together  from  all  parts  of  the  country  women 
interested  in  their  religion,  following  similar  lines  of  work  and 
sympathetic  in  ways  of  thought.  .  .  .  The  papers  in  the  volume 
are  all  of  interest. — Detroit  Free  Press. 

The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America  has  done  a  good  work 
in  gathering  up  and  issuing  in  a  well-printed  volume  the  "  Papers  of 
the  Jewish  Women's  Congress. "—Cleveland  Plain-Dealer. 


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OLD 
EUROPEAN  JEWRIES 

By  DAVID  PHILIPSON,  D.  D. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS 

A  good  purpose  is  served  in  this  unpretending  little  book,  .  .  . 
which  contains  an  amount  and  kind  of  information  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  elsewhere  without  great  labor.  The  author's  sub- 
ject is  the  Ghetto,  or  Jewish  quarter  in  European  cities.— Literary 
World  (Boston). 

It  is  interesting  .  .  .  to  see  the  foundation  of  .  .  .  so  much 
fiction  that  is  familiar  to  us-^to  go,  as  the  author  here  has  gone  in 
one  of  his  trips  abroad,  into  the  remains  of  the  old  Jewries.— 
Baltimore  Sun. 

His  book  is  a  careful  study  limited  to  the  official  Ghetto.— Cinci n- 
nati  Commercial-Gazette. 

Out-of-the-way  information,  grateful  to  thedelver  in  antiquities, 
forms  the  staple  of  a  work  on  the  historic  Ghettos  of  Europe  — 
Milwaukee  Sentinel. 

He  tells  the  story  of  the  Ghettos  calmly,  sympathetically  and 
conscientiously,  and  his  deductions  are  in  harmony  with  those  of 
all  other  intelligent  and  fair-minded  men.— Richmond  Dispatch. 

A  striking  study  of  the  results  of  a  system  that  has  left  its  mark 
upon  the  Jews  of  all  countries.— San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

He  has  carefully  gone  over  all  published  accounts  and  made  dis- 
criminating use  of  the  publications,  both  recent  and  older,  on 
his  subject,  in  German,  French  and  English.— Reform  Advocate 
(Chicago). 


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